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TIL "addiction" was a Roman term for a slave, and originated from a latin myth where former slave Addictus would roam the earth with his chains attached, as he grew comfortable with the way they felt

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4WOX TIL that sharks are older than trees. “Modern” trees lived around 350 million years ago while sharks have existed for 400 million years
KYmMQ TIL Jamestown governor John Ratcliffe, the villain in Disney's Pocahontas, died horrifically in real life. After being tricked, ambushed & captured, women removed his skin with mussel shells and tossed the pieces into a fire as he watched. They skinned his face last, and burned him at the stake.
0wK0p TIL that Mahatma Ghandi wrote two letters to Hitler, in which he asked him to stop the war cause it would have caused many victims. Neither of the letters he wrote were allowed to be sent by the colonial government.
1aLXD TIL the proverb, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings," derives from the traditionally buxom Valkyrie Brünnhilde from Wagner's Götterdämmerung opera. Her farewell song before the end of the world lasts almost twenty minutes and leads to the finale of the whole Ring Cycle of operas by Wagner.
PYy5Z TIL a Guatemalan boy saw soldiers come into his village and murder his parents along with the rest of the village, was adopted and raised in an abusive household by one of the men who massacred the villagers, and later gave testimony that sent the killer to prison with a 6,000 year sentence