TIL about Giles Corey, who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem trials. He used a legal loophole and refused to plea, which meant he couldn't be tried. He was then tortured to death, but still refused to plea, allowing his children to claim their inheritance. https://ift.tt/cujPB6A

TIL that in an effort to save $43.5, the Canadian Mint mailed the dies of the new $1 coin via a discount courier over using an armored car- which were promptly stolen and have never been found. This would lead to the adoption of the Loonie design as an emergency replacement. https://ift.tt/f1HSQh5

TIL Oscar the Therapy Cat accurately predicted 25 deaths. After this the staff started notifying family members of residents to come say goodbye if Oscar was curled up next to them. https://ift.tt/mAsndS6

TIL Critical Periods: Periods of time where an organism's brain is extremely malleable and sensitive to stimuli. If the organism doesn't receive the appropriate stimulus during this critical period to learn a given skill- it maybe difficult or even impossible to develop certain associated functions https://ift.tt/LMbmZJN

TIL: Andrew Bonar Law is the only Canadian to have served as Prime Minister of the UK. He was born in New-Brunswick which was a British colony at the time. https://ift.tt/6a8IArq

TIL despite their strong 'drinking culture', it's actually against the law for Brits to get drunk inside a pub. The punishment for the crime is a fine of up to £200. https://ift.tt/ATcYIRC

TIL that after the highly influential singing group "The Ink Spots" broke up in the 1950s, so many former members and even non-members used "The Ink Spots" group name that in 1967, a Federal Judge ruled that it had become Public Domain and was free for anyone to use. Over 100 groups have done so. https://ift.tt/a0xTXgF

TIL that scientists had to rename genes because MS Excel would convert those names into dates https://ift.tt/GE9Jdct

TIL NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar agreed to appear in the movie "Airplane!" on the condition he be paid $35,000..the exact price of a rug he wanted to purchase. https://ift.tt/bBjtLCe

TIL Wheat and Barley were ancient Egyptian pregnancy tests. A woman would urinate on bags of barley and wheat and if they sprouted, she was likely pregnant. A 1963 study found that this was accurate ~70% of the time https://ift.tt/8ker6M3

TIL that The Simpsons episode "Homer at the Bat" has saved at least two lives because it features a poster explaining how the Heimlich maneuver works. This information helped Chris Bencze save his brother's life in 1992 and helped Aiden Bateman save his friend Alex Hardy in 2007. https://ift.tt/58lo3sk

TIL in October 2005 a woman hanged herself in a tree near a residential road and was mistaken as a Halloween decoration for over 3 hours https://ift.tt/W0I7Xcr

TIL in ancient Babylon, they worshiped the god Marduk via his statue. Enemy rulers who defeated Babylon would often take the statue. All five kings known to have taken the statue of Marduk from Babylon died violently at the hands of their own family members https://ift.tt/7E0T8Vk

TIL: The government of North Korea assigns every citizen a social class based on the political, social, and economic background of their direct ancestors as well as the behavior of their relatives. Descendants from wealthy families (pre-revolution) are given the lowest status. https://ift.tt/bjnLSZW

TIL that in 2018 Hasbro trademarked the smell of Play-Doh, which they described as "the combination of a sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, and the natural smell of a salted, wheat-based dough." https://ift.tt/dk23pli

TIL that the Donkey Kong character who was featured in the original 1981 arcade game is not the same Donkey Kong with the red necktie that we know of today; the original Donkey Kong is in fact Cranky Kong. https://ift.tt/ZpHjz3e

TIL Ancient Roman women would wear wigs featuring blonde German hair and black Indian hair mixed together at the same time to show off the civilizations they conquered https://ift.tt/OvUD2EA

TIL about Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American film star. Her career began in silent movies era and continued to her death. One of the first to adopt the flapper style of the 20s, she was voted “world’s best dressed woman” in 1934. She will be featured in the American Women quarter series. https://ift.tt/p7wg0XF

TIL the price of textbooks increases by an average of 12% with each new edition https://ift.tt/oDG1hZC

TIL That King Saud of Saudi Arabia, The second king of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia had a total of 108 sons and daughters. https://ift.tt/8xqAO5a

TIL Guy Fawkes wasn't hanged but jumped to his death to avoid the agony of hanging. He broke his neck on the fall. https://ift.tt/iAEvnBh