› added 10 years ago

59

TIL that in Jamestown in 1619, you could purchase a wife for 120 pounds of tobacco.

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M0pW TIL fracking is exempt from sections of several U.S. laws, including the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and CERCLA (aka Superfund)
VMKRD TIL that even though the 21st Amendment ended alcohol prohibition in the US in 1933, the State of Mississippi enforced the law until 1966 and even today, 32 counties are "dry." Cities in some of those counties do sell some alcohol but it still remains entirely prohibited in 8 counties.
6EgGY TIL the US Navy replaced expensive and clunky periscope controls on submarines with Xbox 360 controllers, which reduced training time from hours to minutes
D7Yj TIL that it is hard to fool the brain by providing it with ‘energyless’ sweet flavours. Our pleasure in consuming sweet solutions is driven to a great extent by the amount of energy it provides: greater reward in the brain is attributed to sugars compared to artificial sweeteners.
v1d78 TIL During the Trial of Joan of Arc, the prosecution, headed by Pierre Cauchon, sent an agent to France to collect dirt on her life in her home village. Cauchon was enraged when the agent "had found nothing concerning Joan that he would not have liked to find about his own sister".