› added 4 years ago

237

TIL It was once popular to name your children after the President of the United States. Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Grover Cleaveland Alexander is an example of this phenomenon. The trend fell out of style during Nixon’s term.

Read more huffpost.com

via reddit.com

XEA18 TIL that in 1999, Harvard physicist Lene Hau was able to slow down light to 17 meters per second and in 2001, was able to stop light completely.
7r1OZ TIL that Brig. Gen. Jimmy Stewart remained active in the USAF after the second world war, and flew his last combat mission over Vietnam in 1966.
NmR6 TIL Romans kept track of the years by naming them after the two consuls that year (e.g. the consulship of Vinicius and Haterius) When Julius Caesar essentially ruled alone during his “co-consulship” with Bibulus, Romans joked by referring to that year as the consulship of Julius and Caesar.
gr1XL TIL locusts are just angry, swarming, grasshoppers that have been agitated enough that they transform
kQd7 TIL that Devil’s Tower was the US’s first National Monument and that Geologists are still uncertain about exactly how it was formed.