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

TIL artist Salvador Dali illustrated a 1969 edition of Alice in Wonderland, with only 2,700 copies printed. It included twelve illustrations and a front-cover etching signed by Dali himself. Signatures of Dali can be spotted throughout, such as the melting clock found at the Mad Tea Party. https://ift.tt/4p3ltbo

TIL Mel Gibson originally intended for The Passion of the Christ to have no subtitles, despite the film being entirely in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic. https://ift.tt/f19k8QH

TIL 37-year-old Anthony Hensley was in his kayak when he went to go check on a swan that became aggressive towards him causing him to fall out of kayak. As Anthony tried swimming back to shore the swan kept attacking him causing him to drown. https://ift.tt/5jLlCVN

TIL, 14 year old math Olympiad perfect scorer has been missing for 21 years, leaving a single note behind. https://ift.tt/rI5TQ7o

TIL that before the invention of regfrigeration in 1851, ice had to be imported to Australia from Boston, Massachusetts. The ice blocks travelled through the tropics inside ships insulated with timber, straw, peat, and sawdust https://ift.tt/pamWHRT

TIL When Nevada became a state in 1864 it did not include the southern tip where Las Vegas now is. Arizona claimed that land until Congress rewarded the land to Nevada in 1866 for staying with the Union. https://ift.tt/KW8aCIT

TIL A fireproof, earthquake-proof and bulletproof home can be built with 14,000 plastic bottles and mud. They are being built in Nigeria, Algeria, Honduras, Brazil and Argentina. https://ift.tt/tZn1CHb

TIL eels swim from a lake in Australia through stormwater drains and across the ocean to lay eggs in New Caledonia where they die. Their eggs hatch and make the return journey back to the lake they came from. https://ift.tt/OC5JE7I

TIL A jilted taxidermist killed his ex-fiancée by hiding an explosive in the stuffed body of her beloved sky terrier. https://ift.tt/q0oSndI

TIL Pom-pom hats are not only cute addition to a hat, but were useful to French sailors. When the waters got rough, the pom-poms on their hats kept them from hitting their heads on the low roofs of the boats. https://ift.tt/6yIDYmW

TIL of the Antikythera Mechanism, a device discovered from a shipwreck in Greece. It has a calendar, star charts, planetary alignments, moon phases, etc. It is estimated to be created in first or second century BC. https://ift.tt/JboYpTH

TIL: After traveling more than 1 billion miles, a Japanese spacecraft brought 1,500 grains from an asteroid back to Earth in 2010. It was the first time samples from an asteroid had been brought back to Earth. https://ift.tt/YK9UdBp

TIL When you flush a soiled toilet a plume of germs sprays up into the air. https://ift.tt/Ee4u5Q7