› added 8 months ago

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TIL that Missouri is likely called the Show-Me State in reference to a speech from a Congressman in 1899: "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."

Read more history.howstuffworks.com

via reddit.com

OXDR TIL George V did not want his son Edward VIII to become King and told his private secretary that ‘After I am dead the boy will ruin himself in 12 months.’ After George’s death, Edward was King for 10 months and 3 weeks before giving up the throne.
eDA5 TIL in 1974, an American television news reporter, commited suicide live on TV. She had written a script which included not only the shooting, but also a third person account to be read by whoever took over the broadcast after she had shot herself.
v18M7 TIL that a male brown antechinus mates with as many females as possible for up to 14 hours at a time. Unfortunately, the effort usually crashes his immune system and ultimately kills him.
5VmoP TIL of Richard Francis Burton, an 19th century British explorer and writer, who disguised himself as Muslim in order to get into both Mecca and Medina. While he was not the first European to go to either one of those cities, his pilgrimage is the most famous and best documented of the time.
XExxQ TIL about Tyke the elephant. She was abused by her trainers and ultimately snapped during a live circus in Honolulu, HI. She killed her trainer and was inevitably shot 87 times to death on the street after a horrific rampage in the City.