› added 11 years ago

175

TIL that in 1484, Pope Innocent VIII condemned cats as unholy creatures, causing thousands of cats to be burned alive.

Read more knowyourcat.info

via reddit.com

Gmeg TIL that Tilly Smith, 10 years old British schoolgirl, saved her family and 100 other tourists from the 2004 Asian tsunami, by recognizing signs of tsunamis she had learned in a geography lesson two weeks before.
gkM8 TIL Lord Timothy Dexter, late 1700s American businessman, faked his own death, but after attending his own funeral and not seeing his wife cry, revealed himself and caned her for not grieving hard enough
oB00L TIL about the Akutan Zero (also known as Koga's Zero), a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero that crashed on a small island in Alaska during the Battle of Dutch Harbor, killing its young pilot and giving America an intelligence bonanza
loKw1 TIL the band name Smashing Pumpkins doesn't mean breaking a gord; the "Smashing" in it is an adjective not a verb. So smashing as in "fantastic".
5WoD TIL an FBI informant investigating corruption in LA jail was transferred to different jails, kept in isolation, held under various aliases, and watched around the clock to prevent FBI handlers from finding him. The corruption included brutality and staging “gladiator style fights” between inmates.