› added 13 years ago

124

TIL that King Faisal of Saudi Arabia abolished slavery and freed 1,682 slaves…in 1962.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

Y7OGA TIL of Alice Kober, who helped decipher an ancient script known as Linear B. Over 20 years, she meticulously recorded her research in a collection of 180,000 index cards. The script was deciphered in 1952, shortly after her death. It remains the only Bronze Age Aegean script that is readable now.
R5KM8 TIL Marcus Licinius Crassus, often called "the richest man in Rome," formed the first fire brigade, saving burning buildings only if owners sold at a low price. Otherwise, he let them burn. The buildings would then be leased back to the former owners.
Z8l8Q TIL that the early Earth may have had two moons. The second formed from the leftover debris from the Giant Impact and stayed in orbit for tens of millions of years before crashing into the far side of the moon. This explains why the two sides of the moon are vastly different from each other.
5YYGn The sound of a jet engine is about 1,000,000,000 times more powerful than the smallest audible sound.
kOloW TIL The final episode of Perry Mason was set in a TV studio, offering the entire production crew an opportunity to appear on camera. Most of the behind-the-scenes personnel in the episode had been with the show the entire nine year run. The original author, Erle Gardner, appeared too.