› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the Dutch East India Company was the first company to ever go public on a stock exchange, raising enough capital to become a multinational conglomerate with over 70,000 employees. At it's peak, the company was worth 78 million Dutch guilders - equivalent to $7.4 trillion today.

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LY10 TIL In the 1930s two psychologists adopted a baby chimp and tried to raise her as their child alongside their real infant son Donald to see if this caused the chimp to learn human behavior. They stopped the experiment after 9 months because their son actually started behaving more like a chimp.
ADlB7 TIL the boardgame "Chutes and Ladders" is based on an Indian game called "Snakes and Ladders." The original game dates back to the 2nd century B.C. and was meant to teach children morality. The snakes symbolized vice, the ladders virtue. Ironically, the game relies entirely on luck, not strategy.
g9gb TIL a “Chichevache” is a (fabled) human-faced cow that is perpetually starved because it only eats good and faithful wives. The Bicorne, its husband-eating counterpart is well-fed.
OG0K7 TIL of Cockaigne, an imaginary land of plenty in medieval myth, where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand. In Cockaigne, abbots are beaten by their monks, nuns are flipped over to show their bottoms, and the skies rain cheese.
99ED TIL that many notable famines in history have actually stemmed not from a lack of food, but rather from bad ( or deliberate ) government policies.