Today I learned of the 13 languages attested from before 1000BC, only two (Ancient Chinese and Mycenaean Greek) have descendants which continue to be spoken to this day en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisโฆ
The first attestation of the Shroud of Turin claims that it's a forgery and that a local man had admitted to creating it in 1390 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrโฆ
There's an archaic Cyrillic character, ๊ฎ, called the "Multiocular O", only attested in a manuscript in the word for "multieyed seraphim" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulโฆ
As the crow flies is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist: "We cut over the fields at the back with him between us โ straight as the crow flies" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_โฆ
Henry Ford published an anti-smoking book, circulated to youth in 1914, called The Case Against the Little White Slaver, which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many researchers and luminaries. Www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heโฆ
The laws that governed the Universe and which were controlled by Anu, the earliest attested God, were known as the **_meh_**. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu
There are wild wallabies in France. When one gets killed by a car, authorities provide an official attestation to the driver, otherwise insurers wouldn't believe it. youtube.com/watch?v=iio-5โฆ
The use of [SPOILER ALERT] is attested as early as 1982, and it was concerning the plot of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan theawl.com/2010/07/the-hiโฆ
A Connecticut court executed George Spencer in 1642 for bestiality. The court needed two witnesses, though. One was the man Spencer confessed to. The other: the stillborn piglet, who happened to have one eye like Spencer, thus attesting to his guilt. The sow was also executed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeโฆ
The first known reference in English to the word "cunt" apparently is in a compound, an Oxford street name "Gropecuntlane" cited from c.1230 (and attested through late 14c.) in "Place-Names of Oxfordshire" (Gelling & Stenton, 1953), presumably a haunt of prostitutes. 15c.; dictionary.com/browse/cunโฆ
Testicle is related to words like testify, testimony, attest and testament, presumably because testes were witness to a man's virility. worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-โฆ
The smooth form of the Egyptian pyramids were gradually developed and not by some supernatural means as attested by the Bent Pyramid en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benโฆ
Spectral imaging revealed that a 13th century religious text was written over a 10th century copy of a lost manuscript of Archimedes. The work contains the first attested explicit use of indivisibles and other mathematical theorems lost to science for hundreds of years. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aโฆ
In Western Europe in 1750 a female donkey was put on trial for bestiality. It was acquitted after witnesses attested to its "virtue and good behavior", and its human co-conspirators were sentenced to death. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniโฆ
The house mouse (domestic mouse) migrated from regions within India to the rest of the world. This has large scale implications to the origin and spread of agriculture, human settlement and human civilization itself. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artiโฆ
Several forms of irony/sarcasm punctuation have been proposed, among the oldest and frequently attested is the "percontation point" invented by English printer Henry Denham in the 1580s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroโฆ
Tolar, NM has the distinction of being the only town in the USA to be bombed out of existence in World War II. Not that it was a large town at the time. The explosion from an accidental railroad disaster left a crater about 20-feet deep and 60-feet wide - the town was pretty much obliterated. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolโฆ
There is speculation that, in 1547โ48, Queen Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII, and her fourth husband Thomas Seymour were involved in a mรฉnage ร trois with the future Queen Elizabeth; there were well attested episodes of sexually charged horseplay involving the three. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%Cโฆ
The term 'lumberjack' is apparently of Canadian derivation. The first attested use of the word is in 1831 in the passage: "my misfortunes have been brought upon me chiefly by an incorrigible, though perhaps useful, race of mortals called LUMBERJACKS, whom, however, I would name the.." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumโฆ
During World War II, Ferdynand Arczyลski produced hundreds of false IDs, work cards, service attestations, birth, and marriage certificates, distributed free some 4,000 Jews hiding on the "Aryan" side of the ghetto. He also helped with providing aid to Jews in concentration camps. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferโฆ
It ain't over till the fat lady sings is a phrase generally understood to be referencing the stereotypically overweight sopranos of the opera. The "fat lady" is the Valkyrie Brรผnnhilde, who is traditionally presented as a very buxom lady. Her farewell scene lasts almost twenty minutes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_โฆ
Most people can catch unexpectedly thrown objects faster than they can consciously process , which suggests that catching can be a learned, but unconscious reflex. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2โฆ
A Japanese samurai could kill anyone of the lower class if they compromised their honour (insults them). They needed a witness to show that the victim actually insulted the samurai otherwise he could get severely punished. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirโฆ
Etymologists do not truly know the origins of the word "dog", they were generally called hounds before changing at some stage to dogs etymonline.com/index.php?โฆ
In the movie โDeliverance,โ the banjo boy was played by a local (Billy Redden) who looked like an intellectually disabled inbred enhanced with special makeup, but was neither. He couldnโt play the banjo, so another musician reached around him from behind disguised with careful camera angles. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilโฆ
Ice-T once ascribed his success in the world of entertainment to his experience as a pimp, saying "I can't act, I really can't act, I ain't no rapper, it's all game" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceโฆ
Some domain name registrars let you search for names and then register them in their own name if you do not buy them immediately. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domโฆ
In a Washington DC park, wild coyotes are allowed to den and raise their young. They are allowed to stay in order to scavenge roadkill and reduce the rodent population. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyโฆ
The word JAZZ was changed from โjassโ to โjazzโ to discourage hooligans from crossing out the โjโ on billboards. 30daysofjazz.wordpress.coโฆ
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