› added 12 years ago

69

TIL that the pilot of the only enemy aircraft to ever bomb the lower 48 was invited back to the town he tried to burn and made an honorary citizen.

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via reddit.com

QwRp TIL that Andrew Jackson chose a donkey as the Democratic Party’s mascot because his political enemies called him a jackass.
rNWJ1 TIL about the Forty Elephants or Forty Thieves, an all women crime syndicate in London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that specialized in shoplifting and pretending to be maids and robbing the wealthy families who hired them.
GYX9Q TIL that dogs love humans at least as much as they love food. 20 % love us even more.
pYr7p TIL: Castrati were singers who were castrated before puberty to develop a unique voice for singing. They were primarily in church choirs and operas. Italian operas without one would be doomed to fail. The Pope tried to ban them in 1748, but failed as it would drastically reduce church attendance.
ADy54 TIL of the Belmonte Jews, a Jewish community in Portugal that went into hiding during the inquisition in the 15th century, and remained undiscovered by the outside world until the 20th century. Until then, they believed they were the only Jews in the world.