› added 12 years ago

79

TIL the Kiwi was originally from China and was called the Chinese Gooseberry, but the name was changed because of bad US/Chinese relations and to avoid high tariffs on berries.

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b9y9Q TIL that the five-digit zip code didn’t exist until the 60s, wasn’t mandatory until the 70s, and the plus-four didn’t exist until the 80s.
MAMm TIL there are two versions of the Mona Lisa
XEK56 TIL the US government imposed a tax on telephone service in 1898 to support the Spanish-American War and only stopped collecting it in 2006.
b8pj TIL that the earliest flush toilets were used by the people of the Indus Valley Civilization (existing from approx. 3300 BC - 1700 BC). Almost every home in the ancient cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa had a flush toilet connected to a common sewage system.
5owp TIL narwhals are one of the only asymmetrical species in the world because their tusk grows out of their upper left jaw