› added 4 years ago

78

TIL that in the Middles Ages, psychiatric disorder existed among the upper class causing people to fear that they were made of glass "and therefore likely to shatter into pieces". One famous sufferer was King Charles VI of France, who wore reinforced clothing to protect himself from "shattering"

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

W7ejL TIL About Silas Soule, a Little-Known Union Officer and Abolitionist Who Died Aged 26 for Testifying About the Massacre at Sand Creek
0dMXM TIL that Vannevar Bush had envisioned the world wide web through his memex concept.
Kw5E TIL the “Man in the Iron Mask” story describes an actual prisoner, held for 34 years (until his death) and never seen without a velvet mask on. His identity and the reason for his anonymity remain a mystery to this day.
LQ6Gm TIL that the avian magnetic compass of the European Robin has been extensively researched and uses vision-based magnetoreception, in which the Robin's ability to sense the magnetic field of the earth for navigation is affected by the light entering the bird's eye.
KOaw TIL that during a siege in 1857, a mysterious Scottish soldier watched one his comrades get shot, and announced that he had joined the regiment simply to see that man die. He then ran into a breach singing Bible verses and trying unsuccessfully to get himself killed.