› added 5 months ago

45

TIL that before the invention of electric light, most Europeans had two phases of sleep, awakening late at night before sleeping again, called biphasic sleep

Read more pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

via reddit.com

LK8r TIL that the Soviet Secret Police on Stalin’s orders executed 22,000 Polish officers but Roosevelt and Churchill had to deny it and blame the Nazis in order to maintain their alliance with Stalin
94V7 TIL that a man escaped from slavery, by not running away, but by mailing himself through the post office to a free state
X0g1E TIL the number of Indian seamen employed on UK ships was so great that the British tried to restrict this by the Navigation Acts in force from 1660, which required that 75 percent of the crew of a British-registered ship importing goods from Asia had to be British.
a8kAZ TIL that a double denim outfit, is also known as a “Canadian tuxedo”
v1yOL Your risk of being attacked by a shark is about 11.5 million to one. That means you're more likely to be struck by lightning or die from the flu than fall victim to a shark attack.