› added 7 years ago

75

TIL the unit used to measure shoes/feet in Britain is called a Barleycorn (1/3rd of an inch)

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8e1wZ TIL Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York from 1875 to 1876 and the 1876 Democratic nominee, was a lifelong bachelor and once disclosed to a friend that he never slept with a woman before
b6RA7 TIL that until recently, steel used for scientific and medical purposes had to be sourced from sunken battleships as any steel produced after 1945 was contaminated with radiation.
8a9EL TIL about Keith Cutler, a judge summoned to be a juror on a case he was presiding over. When he applied to be excused from jury service he was initially declined, and was told to write to the resident judge, to which he replied: "I am the resident judge."
mrwR TIL that Louisiana actually isn’t the most French speaking state. According to the 2013 Census, 5.28% of Maine households are French speaking, compared to 4.68% in Louisiana.
MewWa TIL Erik Thorvaldsson (Erik the Red), discovered a frozen island 1,500 miles west of Iceland. He wished to settle there but was worried no one would want to because of the harsh conditions. In order to fool them into taking the dangerous voyage, he told them the name of the island was "Greenland"