› added 12 years ago

101

TIL the Pope had to make a decree that Native Americans were “rational beings with souls” and not to be enslaved in 1537.

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xV4Gb TIL Naturalist Thomas Savage went to Africa and acquired the skull and bones from an unknown ape species, which he described in 1847. The ape is known today as western gorilla
QJ9WL TIL a photo a man who appeared to die while masturbating during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD was due to the contraction of limbs as a consequence of the heat effect on their bodies after death occurred.
brK0 TIL in literature there is a principle called Chekhov’s gun. This principle requires that every element in a text is necessary with no extra information at all.
Y7WmP TIL there are many civil war era buildings that still have blood stains in their floors from wounded soldiers during the war when they were used as field hospitals. Especially at Gettysburg and also at Antietam and perryville to name a few.
16wjP TIL that in December 2013 a sophomore at Harvard University sent several bomb threats through the Tor network to cancel a political history exam he was unprepared for. He succeeded, but was caught that same day.