› added 11 years ago

299

TIL there is a word that rhymes with orange. Sporange is a botany term that means “spore case.”

Read more wiktionary.org

via reddit.com

aw5Q9 TIL Lafayette, the French officer who aided the U.S. Revolutionary War, gifted a pair of pistols to Washington in 1778. Eventually, they came into Andrew Jackson's possession, and Lafayette identified them while visiting Jackson in 1825. In his will, Jackson bequeathed them back to Lafayette's son.
Ye0r TIL: That on June 6th 1942, 500 Japanese soldiers invaded and captured Kiska, Alaska. Taking a 10 man (and 6 dog) US Navy weather detachment completely by surprise. By the end of the campaign more casualties occurred in Alaska than at Pearl Harbor.
d8wA7 TIL that Ice T has narrated a Dungeons and Dragons audiobook. He also pronounced the W in "sword" throughout.
R5oB7 TIL about San Miguel de Gualdape, a short-lived Spanish colony founded in 1526 somewhere in modern South Carolina or Georgia. The location had the first enslaved Africans in the modern United States, and also the first slave revolt. The fates of the Africans is lost to history.
R7Rd8 TIL back when the NY subways used tokens, criminals would jam the slot and then suck out the token with their mouths. To discourage this, subway workers would put hot chili powder in the slots.