Post * vpN4 — Curious Curator

› added 10 years ago

241

TIL that in 1978, Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen and held for ransom. His widow refused to pay ransom demands of £400,000 because “Charlie would have thought it ridiculous.” The body was found 11 weeks later.

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D1Rde TIL about the Wittmoor bog trackway, two historic corduroy (wooden log) roads, discovered in 1898 in Hamburg, Germany. Dating of the logs used to construct the road reveal they were cut down in 330 AD during the Roman Empire.

l7Jk1 TIL that the May 31 1984 escape of the notorious Briley Brothers from death row, would have been a lot more violent had convict Wilbert Lee Evans not stopped them from killing prison staff and victimising a nurse they had captured.

E1nQ0 TIL Dennis Hastert, former Republican Speaker of the House from 1999-2007 became the highest ranking US politician to go to prison. He had molested an unconfirmed number of boys (at least 4) and was indicted and plead guilty on charges of silencing a victim with hush money. He served 12 months.

wvOE TIL Georg Cantor, the mathematician who came up with the idea that ‘infinity has different sizes’, was rejected by most of his contemporaries for his ideas and, as a result, suffered from depression until the end of his life.

Z8VWG TIL places like Wales, Wallachia, Wallonia, and Cornwall etc, have similar names because it was the word German conquerors called the surviving Roman speakers after the empire fell. The twem "walhaz" means stranger, which the surviving Roman refugees were to them.