› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the reason that Australia is formally named "The Commonwealth of Australia" is that the framers who wrote the Australian Constitution were obsessed with a book called "The American Commonwealth" that described American democracy in the 1870's. They give it the same "reverence as the Bible".

Read more hcourt.gov.au

via reddit.com

60XJ TIL that in order to keep the project a secret, the British army used the innocuous name “mobile water carriers” for a motorized weapons project - which is the reason we call them “tanks”.
PYooV TIL of Diana Trujillo - who despite being a 17 year old immigrant arriving to America with no English skills and only $300 dollars in her pocket - was able to work her way from housekeeper to becoming an aerospace engineer at NASA who helped create the robotic arm for Mars rover Perseverance.
D1laP TIL about the Nazi program to develop nuclear weapons. The program suffered from a lack of scientists, as the politicization of research in Nazi Germany had pushed most scientists to flee to the United States.
16wrP TIL The Big Ben's unique tone is because the bell had cracked in 1859, barely two months after its inauguration. The bell is since oriented in such a way the hammer doesn't strike the 'crack'
grAry TIL When Emma Stone registered for the Screen Actors Guild, her real name "Emily Stone" was already taken, so she decided on the name "Emma" in honor of Emma Bunton, AKA Baby Spice of the Spice Girls.