› added 1 month ago

11

TIL: There was obesity in the Middle Ages, but the rich were expected to restrain themselves as fat people can't become knights. However, Sancho I was a morbidly obese king who weighed 240 kg and couldn't wield a sword, bed his wife, or walk. He was eventually expelled as he was too obese to rule.

Read more hekint.org

via reddit.com

kNZg TIL When President Ronald Reagan has been admitted to a hospital in 1981 due to being shot by John Hinckley Jr., he joked “Please tell me you’re all Republicans.” To which a surgeon who was a liberal democrat himself replied, “We’re all Republicans today.”
e0nxb TIL throughout the 1970’s the Grateful Dead used a 32ft tall PA system that could deliver perfect sound 600ft away. It had to be hauled in caravans of semi trucks and took 4 hours to assemble. They called it “The Wall of Sound”.
1v6W TIL that Buddhists have been selecting monks to study science in order to create a curriculum including science education. This will be the first change in Tibetan monastery and scholastic curriculum in 600 years.
r0Po TIL In Jimmy Carter’s 1970 run for Gov. of GA, he criticized support of MLK, Jr. and praised segregationist Wallace to win conservative voters. Once he won the election, he declared that “the time of racial segregation was over.” His conservative supporters were shocked. He planned it all along.
O7Q7 TIL that there is a unit of American currency called a “Mill” that is worth 1/10 of a cent. Although there haven’t been physical coins in use since the 1960’s, it is still occasionally used (gas prices are usually posted in mills).