› added 5 months ago

28

TIL that medieval Christian monks had strange haircuts called tonsures, as a symbol of religious devotion and humility.

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via reddit.com

gr5lW TIL about Project 100,000, a controversial 1960s program by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to recruit soldiers who would previously have been below military mental or medical standards.
oyJR TIL Algebra is based on arabic al-jebr meaning “reunion of broken parts”
YokA TIL in India, where most marriages are arranged by parents with the couples vetted on the basis of caste, complexion, horoscope, there is a Guardian Angels-style vigilante group that protects young couples who fall in love across different castes. They are called the Love Commandos.
rRWBy TIL that two out of three French Canadians are descended from just 800 women, the so-called "Filles du Roi" [Daughters of the King], who were mostly poor women, many of them orphans, imported into New France between 1663 and 1673.
NXL8e TIL Levi Hutchins created America's first mechanical alarm clock in 1787 because he wanted to get up at 4am every day. So his device was only set to that desired time and it was another 60 years before Antoine Redier made one that was able to be adjusted to a time other than 4am.