› added 8 years ago

79

TIL a pound coin (£) originally weighed one troy pound of sterling silver, giving the currency the name “pound sterling”.

Read more simple.wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

D1aJJ TIL The first name recorded in writing is on a five thousand year old clay tablet found in what used to be Mesopotamia. It's a business receipt in which a man named Kushim signed for 29,086 measures of barley.
Ypjwr TIL Galileo was the first to confirm the Moon's rough and uneven surface using a specially-engineered telescope and the first to find sunspots. Both findings, in addition to his observation of Jupiter's moons revolving the planet, helped disprove Aristotle's theory of a geocentric universe.
9YMbp TIL that Skylab, the first U.S. space station, cost $2.2 billion but was occupied for only 6 months of its 6 years in orbit. It was damaged during launch and eventually fell to Earth on July 11, 1979. The debris fell on western Australia, and the Shire of Esperance fined NASA A$400 for littering.
epW05 TIL that the vampire bat doesn't suck blood, but instead makes a small cut on its prey and laps up the blood with its tongue.
J1Xvv TIL that the idea that caffeine makes you dehydrated is largely a myth