TIL Montaigne's father, a wealthy french noble, had his son live with a family of peasants until the age of 3 so he would learn their life conditions. He then had everyone speak latin to him so it was his first language and taught him greek though games and activities instead of studying books https://ift.tt/hBx3yrq

TIL that life imprisonment without possibility of parole has been deemed illegal by the European Court of Human Rights. https://ift.tt/pJOqwnW

TIL that Second Breakfast and Elevenses are actual things and not just fictional creations of J. R. R. Tolkien. https://ift.tt/PqeJLov

TIL the 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, was unsuccessful at the box office, and became a Christmas classic after its copyright expired in 1974 following a lack of renewal and it entered the public domain, which allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees https://ift.tt/yNt7MbW

TIL NORAD started tracking Santa Claus when, during the Cold War, a typo in a newspaper lead a 5-year-old to call a top-secret emergency line reserved for the president. The general who answered pretended to be Santa after learning of the kid's mistake. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/18qmcod/til_norad_started_tracking_santa_claus_when/?utm_source=ifttt

TIL that Reindeer and Caribou are the same animal https://ift.tt/8kBbpGw

TIL that the average time between recessions has grown from about 2 years in the late 1800s to 5 years in the early 20th century to 8 years over the last half-century. https://ift.tt/NObfRtp

TIL that the Wall Drug Store has a billboard advertising its goods and services in Grey Bull, Wyoming, a 394-mile drive away from the South Dakota establishment. https://ift.tt/RxAmJry

TIL that Pedro II of Brazil last words were, "May God grant me these last wishes – peace and prosperity for Brazil..." https://ift.tt/QEHF5VA

TIL that according to a recent study: 90% of children over 2 years old play video games with children 8 to 17 years-old playing video games an average of 1.5-2 hours/day. https://ift.tt/IfYaVjE

TIL that myrrh, one of the Three Wise Men's gifts, is a medicinal herb still in use today https://ift.tt/RFxLIpw

TIL of Tuxedo Stan, a cat that ran for mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was eventually unable to run because of a lack of a birth certificate. https://ift.tt/ax0Pq6A

TIL Back in the Middle Ages, indulgences were sold by the Catholic Church to absolve sins or crimes that had been committed or that were to be committed https://ift.tt/Jlqhy56

TIL There have not yet been any major medical emergencies in space, but astronauts are trained to deal with them. ISS astronauts have developed a way to perform CPR in zero gravity by bracing their legs on the ceiling while pushing down on the patient on the floor below https://ift.tt/PqjXQBk

TIL that after the Battle of Pilska in 811 AD, the Bulgarian emperor Krum the Fearsome had the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros l who was killed in the battle to have his skull be covered in silver in which Krum then used as a drinking cup. https://ift.tt/s2gwr0n

TIL that we discovered the Loch Ness Monster was a hoax because of a chance deathbed confession In 1994. Marmaduke did it to get petty revenge on the Daily Mail for ridiculing him. He faked the famous photo using playdough and a toy submarine. https://ift.tt/S3yETQj

TIL right after the WTC 1 was hit on 9/11, there was no evacuation order in WTC 2 and everyone in the building was supposed to stay put. Only some offices chose to defy this order. This only changed when WTC 2 was also struck by a plane. https://ift.tt/S4VJdPx

TIL that while Gina DeJesus was held captive for years in Ariel Castro's house, her father unknowingly interacted with Castro, even sharing beers and conversations in his garden, never realizing his daughter was imprisoned mere feet away. https://ift.tt/AeO2JBX

TIL the Giffen Goods. These are poor-quality goods that defy standard economic behavior and whose demand increases as prices rise. Despite the substitution effect, the income effect of higher prices leads to greater consumption of the commodity. https://ift.tt/N2VJFR9

TIL that in 1941 a reindeer lived on board a British submarine for about 6 weeks with over 50 human crew members. https://ift.tt/PKRLHMh

TIL that when Jeff Immelt was General Electric's CEO, he had an empty private jet following his own private jet, in case there were delays with his primary jet. https://ift.tt/CtEvgpF