› added 6 years ago

147

TIL that a "macaroni", as mentioned in Yankee Doodle, refers to a 1700s trend wherein some men would dress up in ridiculously over the top clothing and speak in a gender-ambiguous manner. The name came from young men who had toured Italy referring to fashionable things as "very macaroni".

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b6vQ0 TIL that the term "Superhero" is jointly trademarked by both DC and Marvel, and any company wishing to use any variation of the term needs to get permission from both companies
N7ZyJ TIL of the 250 plutonium-powered pacemakers Medtronic manufactured, 22 were still in service more than 25 years later, a feat that no battery-powered pacemaker could achieve
4XBR TIL that Rush Limbaugh used his show’s theme - the bassline from “My City Was Gone”, by The Pretenders, without permission. When the song’s writer found out, she demanded that her royalties from Rush’s use of the song be donated to PETA.
PYOlJ TIL When President Jimmy Carter told a joke during a speech in a college in Japan it was greeted with uproarious laughter. When he asked why the joke had gotten such a response, the Japanese interpreter replied: “I told the audience, ‘President Carter told a funny story; everyone must laugh.’ ”
D1ldj TIL that Alexandria (Egypt) came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning, in part because of the Great Library. It was unprecedented due to the scope and scale. According to popular description, an inscription above the shelves read: "The place of the cure of the soul."