› added 9 years ago

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TIL that Queen Victoria’s tradition of a white wedding dress was not symbolic of purity, but rather a calculated political statement and economic strategy.

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XZa6 TIL that in 1985 Soviets ended a hostage crisis within 4 weeks by castrating & killing a relative of a Hezbollah leader then sending the severed organs. A reporter later said, “This is the way the Soviets operate. They do things - they don’t talk. And this is the language the Hezbollah understand.”
JYe8l TIL the first elephant in America was Old Bet, arriving in 1796. Capt Jacob Crowninshield bought it in Calcutta for $450 and sold it in New York for $10K. Old Bet was exhibited for years then sold to Hackaliah Bailey's circus. In 1816, Old Bet was shot in the eye and killed by a spectator.
KYXE4 Today I learned about the Dutch Disease (aka Resource Curse) where a nation is resource rich nations, through corruption and/or inefficiency, are incapable of turning the resources into economic growth.
P1pbG TIL - Spanish archeologist Eliseo Gil Zubillaga in 2006 anounce the discovery of inscriptions on some pieces from the III-V century, in which you could see figures of daily life, a cross of Christ, mythological characters, hieroglyphics and texts in Latin, Greek and Basque wich resulted to be fake.
e0lDk TIL that Pope Formosus’ corpse was dug up from its grave and tried in 897 by his 2nd successor Pope Stephen IV for “perjury and having acceded to the papacy illegally.” His corpse, propped up on a throne and appointed a deacon as his “advocate,” was found guilty, rendering his papacy null and void.