› added 6 years ago

106

TIL that my hometown, Bologna - in Italy - freed all the slaves, and thence banned slavery, in 1256 AD. To celebrate the newly freed men, they had all their names written down in a document called Liber Paradisus (Heaven's Book).

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

P1Mpg TIL that according to Harvard researchers, 36.4% of male online daters use anabolic steroids, as opposed to only 3.8% of non-online dating men.
4XbM6 TIL that from 1956 to 2008, the world record for the most-attended baseball game was held by Australia's Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosted a crowd of 114000 for a game between the Australian National Team and a US Armed Services Team
DKNV TIL in 1849 New York, a man would walk up to strangers and begin a conversation. Gaining their trust, he would ask “Have you the confidence to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?” He would never return. When finally caught, he was labeled a “confidence man”, later shortened to simply “con man”.
GYOJ5 TIL the term "G.I." originally stood for "galvanized iron" and eventually evolved to "government issued" during WWI. Some soldiers used it to sarcastically reference and symbolize their belief that they were simply mass-produced products of the government.
W7N68 TIL that "Desperado", the song by the Eagles, was recorded in London with musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Lead vocalist Don Henley was intimidated by the large orchestra, and would later express regret that he did not sing as well as he could.