› added 4 years ago

157

TIL that "ye", as in "ye olde whatever", is pronounced 'the'. It comes from typesetters using y instead of the Old English letter þ which is a th sound.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

1aN68 TIL the patch on the back of your jeans with the brand is called a Jacron. They were originally made of genuine leather and created to stamp out (pun intended) counterfeit jeans in the late 1800s.
8gVG TIL An 11 year old boy, dying from brain cancer, told his mother he wanted her to donate his organs so that he could save the lives of other children. He reportedly told her “I have seen many people doing good deeds and I think they are great. I want to be a great child too.”
LenV TIL that the Canada-Denmark Territorial Conflict over Hans Island escalates to Danish military going there and leaving a bottle of schnapps and a sign proclaiming “Welcome to the Danish Island” and then Canadian military forces leaving a bottle of Canadian Club and a sign saying, ‘Welcome to Canada"
xXJB TIL that during the Nazi occupation of Greece, the mayor of the island of Zakynthos was ordered to make a list with the names of all Jews on the island. The list handed over to the Nazis contained two names: the mayor’s and the islands Bishop. All Zakynthos Jews survived the Holocaust.
R7QM9 TIL: Of Rotary Jails, huge rotating carosel like jails that would "store" inmates in a large machine that would rotate to let them in and out. They were phased out partially due to inmates limbs being sheared off by the rotation.