TIL the Black Death was partially caused by a mass execution of cats due to supposed association with the Devil, allowing rats and their fleas to rapidly spread. https://ift.tt/BrVd9Yf

TIL that a man accidentally got shot in the head by a particle accelerator back in 1978 and is still alive https://ift.tt/5daJmzw

TIL that the distinct illustration style of 'The Adventures of Tintin' called 'Ligne claire', was created by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé. It uses clear strong lines, no hatching, little contrast, and strong colors with realistic background. It influenced many other artists, f. ex. Chris Ware, https://ift.tt/fuzG5Oh

TIL foreign investors estimated the Confederacy had a 42% chance of winning the Civil War, just before the Battle of Gettysburg https://ift.tt/xlBA2L8

TIL in 1976 , LA Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager was impailed in the throat by San Diego Padre's Bill Russell's broken bat, resulting the the MLB issuing a throat guard rule for catchers. https://ift.tt/WdON2AZ

TIL "Jelly Babies" were first named "Unclaimed Babies" https://ift.tt/7VwKJvn

TIL after Treasure Salvors, Inc. found the Nuestra Señora de Atocha shipwreck, Florida forced the finders into a contract giving 25% of the found treasure to the state. After 8 years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court awarded all found treasure to the finders. https://ift.tt/MPKZ3jd

TIL Florence Nightingale was a pioneer of statistics and infographics. Nightingale used statistics to measure the quality of soldiers' treatment and sanitation. She wrote reports with diagrams so to be understood by politicians and the illiterate; popularizing the pie graph in the process. https://ift.tt/sKPw3Ej

TIL Sonora Carver, one of the first female horse divers, went blind from retinal detachment while diving with her horse, Red Lips, at an Atlantic City show in 1931. Despite her permanent injury, she continued horse diving for another 11 years. https://ift.tt/XKiYDcZ

TIL there is a movement to recover and preserve “heritage apples,” those forgotten once commercial growers settled on a few varieties to mass grow. Over a thousand have been found so far. https://ift.tt/Jcseu9I

TIL that in 1940, after the fall of France during WW2, the British Royal Navy attacked and destroyed, neutralized or captured the largest ships in the French naval fleet in order to ensure they would not fall into German hands. https://ift.tt/BdbA2hl

TIL the Cagots were an outcast minority found in the west of France and northern Spain. Persecuted for centuries, they were not distinguished by any religious, ethnic or physical attributes and were just hated for who they are. https://ift.tt/z0XiLSB

TIL that the Giant Puffball Mushroom has the the most progeny of any living thing. 7 trillion spores. If each of the spores from two generations produced a mushroom they would have a combined size 800 times the size of earth! https://ift.tt/NpFJ2Tn

TIL that during the looting of the Chinese imperial palace at the end of the 2nd Opium War, the British soldiers took a Pekingese dog to gift to Queen Victoria. She named it "Looty" https://ift.tt/vRemQlF

TIL that after a series of leaks at Tesla in 2008, Musk tried to setup a Canary Trap with slightly different versions of an email under top secrecy. But the company's clueless general counsel sent his own version of the e-mail. Thus, scheme was realized by employees who then had a safe copy to leak. https://ift.tt/VtZ5bOY

TIL that Friedrich Engels had a famously strong libido. He had numerous affairs and, despite his condemnation of prostitution as "exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie", also paid for sex. In 1846, he wrote to Marx that "if there were no Frenchwomen, life wouldn't be worth living". https://ift.tt/J5ezgy8

TIL that during Oliver Cromwell’s military campaign in Ireland, his forces allegedly beat an Irish commander to death with his own wooden leg, because they thought he had concealed gold in it. https://ift.tt/yBWpTbE

TIL that WS Simkins, the man who is credited with firing the first shot in the US Civil War, also had a severe foot fetish and went on to fund a five-year expedition to find the perfect foot, which ended in failure. https://ift.tt/NFbHcyB

TIL General Hancock chose to sacrifice an entire regiment to save the Union Army during the Civil War. The 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, 250 men, was ordered to charge a brigade of roughly 1200 men. They suffered a staggering 82% casualties; the largest loss by any surviving U.S unit in a day. https://ift.tt/j3YNRUB

TIL: The video game Assassin's Creed Origins is so historically accurate its used by Egyptologists as teaching material https://ift.tt/GRBYjVv

TIL the car coordinator of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood managed to locate the exact 1959 Ford driven by the Manson Family, but a replica was used instead because the idea of having the real Manson car was considered too creepy. https://ift.tt/Fld4f9U