TIL of the worst crash in motor sports history at the 1955 Le Mans race. A car broke apart and flew into the stands, with its hood decapitating spectators like a guillotine. In the aftermath, varying reports claim 65-120 were killed. The link contains graphic content.
TIL Boudica destroyed so much of ancient London, that dozens of feet below current street level, lies a thick red, burnt strip archaeologists call the “Boudica Destruction Layer”
TIL The Queen of England can fire the entire Australian government. In 1975 her representative in Australia fired the prime minister of Australia and the rest of parliament in response to a government shutdown. There hasn’t been another shutdown since.
TIL that in 1642, Connecticut settler George Spencer was suspected of bestiality when a local pig birthed a piglet that resembled Spencer. He confessed, and they hanged both George and the pig. Another settler was later convicted of the same crime, named Thomas Hogg.