› added 7 years ago

225

TIL that "knocking on wood" originated from pagan culture and was done to scare away evil spirts that lived in trees

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

x6ABk TIL of the town Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha, Québec. The the only town in the world with two exclamation points in its name.
70mP TIL a 57yo Japanese man has been learning to SCUBA dive specifically so he can look for his wife’s remains after she was presumably swept away during the 2011 tsunami. He says her last email to him was “… I want to go home”, and he is determined to make that happen.
PYBEJ TIL on the day he was assassinated by revolutionary nihilists, Alexander II of Russia had signed a ukaz establishing elected positions for commoners in the Tsardom. This edict was immediately dissolved by his son, who went on to consolidate and expand the Tsar's power in Russia.
17KP TIL there’s about 10 times the amount of water inside the earth, as there is in all the oceans, lakes, rivers, and glaciers on the surface.
GybQ TIL former US Attorney General and key supporter of the Patriot Act, John Ashcroft, once lost a senatorial race to a dead guy.