› added 10 years ago

304

TIL a man was executed for starting the Great Fire of London after he claimed he threw a fire-bomb through a bakery window. This was despite the fact that he was heavily crippled, the bakery had no windows, and it was proven at his trial that he was not even in the country at the time.

Read more theregister.co.uk

via reddit.com

wQlY TIL: One of George Patton’s speeches was so vulgar that it had to be toned down for his movie biography. It included phrases such as not having to tell your future grandson you ‘shoveled shit in Louisiana’, but instead you 'rode with a son-of-a-goddamned-bitch named George Patton!’
yQBpa TIL of Enheduanna who is the earliest known poet whose name has been recorded. She was the High Priestess of the goddess Inanna and the moon god Nanna. She lived in the Sumerian city-state of Ur.
5VDEk TIL according to the customs of the Toraja people of Indonesia, the family of a dead person must sacrifice a buffalo. Families that don't already have one or too poor to afford buying a buffalo just assume their dead relatives are just "sick" until they can afford to sacrifice a buffalo.
gMOdW TIL sheep shearing is not animal cruelty. If sheep are not sheared they can experience a lot of health problems. There was a sheep in Australia that was found unsheared for six years, five time the wool of normal sheep, with damaged hooves and skin infections from urine trapped under his wool.
OG4La TIL that in ancient Rome, they used a punishment called "Poena cullei" for patricide. The condemned person was sewn into a sack with live animals such as dogs, snakes, monkeys, and chickens, then thrown into water.