› added 8 years ago

386

TIL people started wearing pants because they made it easier for soldiers to ride horses

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rN651 TIL that an entire town exists in Pennsylvania due to one of the only traffic lights on the Interstate system
oR4GL TIL of an elephant given by Louis IX of France as a gift to Henry III of England in 1255. While living in the Tower of London, the elephant was given a diet of prime cuts of beef and expensive red wine; it was claimed that the elephant died in 1257 from drinking too much wine.
p89Be TIL most of the bread marketed in the U.S. as “wheat” is actually white bread dyed brown with caramel food coloring.
LkD6p TIL the current chess grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, intentionally plays non-book "inaccuracies" during opening (moves he knows aren't the best) to force the game into a non-book position ASAP so his opponents will have to think for themselves instead of going by memorised opening theory
VRvZ TIL that Roman Emperor Augustus witnessed a man attempt to feed a slave to lamprey eels as a punishment for breaking a cup. Augustus freed the slave and had the rest of the man’s cups broken.