› added 5 years ago

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TIL that "Corolla" means "little crown" in Latin, and "innermost ring of flower petals" in English

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XE7DQ TIL the female backing singer during Elvis's infamous "laughing" version of Lonesome Tonight, who keeps singing as Elvis struggles to regain his composure because of it, was Cissa Houston, Whitney Houston's mother
PYwMJ TIL in 1721, the now-Lutheran Danish sent missionaries to Greenland, as it was assumed the medieval Norse settlers must still be Catholic or had reverted to paganism. The Norse had died out in the early 1400s, but the Danes found Inuit there instead
rnax TIL During Apartheid in South Africa, Glasgow renamed the street which at the time was the address of the South African Consulate from St George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place. Consular officials would be forced to look at his name when reading and addressing postal correspondence.
rKnw TIL that when the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was passed, only the birdseed industry successfully lobbied against it by arguing that hemp seeds gave birds shinier feathers than other seeds. Because of this, birdseed producers are legally allowed to import hemp seeds into the US (deactivated) today.
a8v0A TIL Rockwall, Texas is named for a wall they unearthed in 1851 but keep it buried because some people think the ~20 square-mile rectangle dike appears artificial.