› added 11 years ago

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TIL emperor Elagabalus was married as many as five times, lavished favors on male courtiers popularly thought to have been his lovers, employed a prototype of whoopee cushions at dinner parties, and was reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace.

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R74a1 TIL that where your tongue sits at rest depends on your native language. If it’s English, your tongue rests at the roof of your mouth, behind your upper teeth. However, if your first language is Russian or German, your tongue rests at the bottom of your mouth, behind the lower teeth, when not in use
dXXK TIL Disney hired kodak to make the pavement in their parks a certain hue of pink, to make their grass look greener (by wearing out the red receptors in your eyes).
d86gZ TIL Slaves were given redacted bibles so they would not read anything that could cause them to rebel. Most of the old testament and half of the new testament was omitted.
wLgpE TIL: The Oval Office's current desk, a gift from Queen Victoria, was modified by FDR who had a carved front panel added to hide his leg braces. It has also been raised with a base because presidents from JFK to Reagan kept banging their knees against the underside.
5Vmn9 TIL that despite infamously campaigning on "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," Alabama governor George Wallace later renounced segregationism, publicly apologized to the black community, and appointed record numbers of African Americans to state positions and his cabinet.