› added 4 years ago

65

TIL Codex Gigas, largest manuscript in the world was the work of a single scribe according to a legend he added devil's picture out of gratitude for his aid. It is estimated it would have taken twenty years of non-stop writing to produce the work without the illustrations or embellishments.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

RvA8 TIL that Timothy Dexter the 18th century American businessman, writer, and noted eccentric, faked his own death to see how people would react. About 3,000 people attended Dexter’s mock wake. Dexter did not see his wife cry, and after he revealed the hoax, he caned her for not grieving enough.
OEBR TIL at age 20, NBA legend Karl Malone impregnated a 13 year old girl. He refused to acknowledge his son and only spoke to him once, saying it was too late for them to have a relationship. The child went on to play in the NFL.
OGEye TIL that in the Little Mermaid TV series Ariel basically executes a villain who's tied up and defenseless.
eag6 TIL NASA plans to capture and redirect an asteroid to orbit the moon. Astronauts will explore the asteroid and return to Earth with samples. This experience will help NASA test new systems & capabilities, such as solar electric propulsion, which will send cargo as part of human missions to Mars.
BN4K TIL That far from being cowardly, French forces during the Nazi invasion continued to fight for three weeks after the politicians surrendered the country, and only gave up when requested by their general