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TIL that in addition to Neanderthals, another ancient lineage - the Denisovans - also interbred with early human populations. Some people from Oceania and East Asia have Denisovan DNA; and a hybrid skeleton was recently discovered and analyzed.

Read more nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

j50Q TIL Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been reduced significantly since parents have been putting babies to sleep on their backs only.
j6MRX TIL in the Ottoman tradition, the throne did not automatically pass to the eldest son. Rather, potential heirs were expected to fight it out. As soon as the sultan died, the princes were plunged into a race for the throne. Whichever brother won the throne would have the other brothers executed.
bKjp TIL that in 1830, a group of Australian convicts hijacked a ship off the coast of Tasmania and sailed it to isolationist Japan. At a port on Shikoku Island, a samurai disguised as a fisherman recalled walking the docks, when they noted “an unbearable stench in the vicinity of the ship.”
VBJ4G TIL Benjamin Franklin ran the first placebo-controlled blind experiment. In 1782 King Louis XIV hired a group of scientists to investigate Franz Anton Mesmer's medical practices. Mesmer's cures were tried against nothing/fake treatments and ultimately the fakes worked as well as the 'real' cures.
l7jpB TIL as ar back as the 12th Century, the Bishop of Winchester was entrusted to oversee the brothels under his domain and the church began to license and tax brothels as a source of revenue. Some brothels were even directly controlled by the bishop.