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TIL that in the 17th century, lacking chemical tests (and knowledge of disease transmission), Italian physician and autopsy pioneer Antonio Valsalva sometimes tasted the fluids he encountered in cadavers in an effort to better characterize them. "Gangrenous pus does not taste good," he wrote.

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awdgJ TIL Members of the Parliament of the UK are technically not permitted to resign; instead, they apply to be appointed 'Steward and Bailiff' of one of two obscure places which are an 'office of profit under the Crown'. Being paid by the Crown disqualifies from being MP.
6EPew TIL that there was a successful chess-playing machine called "The Turk" constructed in late 18th century. Its secret, a chess master inside, wasn't revealed for almost a century.
E1Aap TIL of Elena Muhkina, a Soviet gymnast who broke her neck after being pressured into performing a dangerous move. She was already suffering from an under-healed break in her leg and, as she laid on the floor with her neck broken, her first thought was: “Thank god, I won’t be going to the Olympics.”
loEO7 TIL The surviving heir to China's imperial dynasty worked in Beijing, had no regrets, and thought his own simple life immeasurably superior to those of his ancestors. "I don't envy them at all. My guess is that even if they lived in palaces, they must have spent every waking moment worrying."
dDrnB TIL people say "Jesus H Christ" probably because English commoners read the insignia of the first three letters of Jesus's name in Greek ΙΗΣ as JHC and misheard the Lords payer as "Harold be thy name" and thought Harold was Jesus's middle name and Christ his last.