› added 11 months ago

33

TIL there is a permanent settlement on Antartica other than a research base, called Villa Las Estrellas.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

woPeY TIL Main Street in San Francisco is not a centrally located street, because it’s actually named for a person: 19th century businessman Charles Main
kOX1e TIL West Indies got its name in 1492 because of a confusion. Christopher Columbus sailed west to find India but he landed in the Bahamas and mistook it for India.
DQB9P TIL In 1946, an American miner and Baptist preacher named William Henry Johnson began sending out a series of letters under the pen name "Furrier No. 1", claiming to be the living Hitler and to have escaped with Braun to Kentucky.
neQQ7 TIL most of the days of the week are named after Nordic Gods. Tyr for Tuesday, Odin (also pronounced Woden) for Wednesday, Thor for Thursday and Frigg for Friday. Meanwhile, Sun for Sunday, Moon for Monday and the Roman God Saturn for Saturday make up the rest.
R5lKQ TIL that for centuries, numerous African populations were purported to be illiterate by European academics. In fact, they'd been using Ajami for literature and communication. Ajami adapts the Arabic script for many African languages, like Roman script is used for European ones...