› added 10 years ago

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TIL while not strictly legal, starting in the 1690s, British husbands used to sell their wives to end bad marriages. It was usually an auction announced by newspaper ad, to which the wife was led by a rope around her neck. Often the buyer was pre-arranged & the sale was a form of symbolic separation

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Yp51P TIL When Alan Alda was seven years old he contracted polio. To combat the disease his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny consisting of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles.
ADx17 TIL of Antonio Paoli, a Puerto Rican tenor considered one of the most outstanding opera singers of all time. During WWI, when all opera houses closed, he lost his voice and became a profession boxer (5-1), retiring after breaking his wrist. He retrained and gained his voice back after the war.
Lkbvv TIL Jang Song Thaek, once the second-most powerful figure in North Korea, was reportedly a supporter of Chinese-style economic reforms. Beijing's top leaders were surprised by Mr. Jang's abrupt downfall in 2013
KYApQ TIL that in 1952 5 people were killed in a Japanese attack on California in the Battle of LA. Except the Japanese never attacked at all, fear over misidentified weather balloons caused a massive response of anti-aircraft guns, resulting in three heart attacks and two car accidents from the panic.
vPa6K TIL that just before Laika went into space, one of the scientists using her for testing brought her home to play with his children. Knowing that she would not survive her journey