› added 4 months ago

18

TIL that for a couple of years in the twentieth century, Colorado, Mississippi and Texas celebrated Thanksgiving twice a year on the third and fourth Thursdays of November.

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via reddit.com

4B6J TIL the phrase “balls to the wall” has nothing to do with genitalia, but actually originally refers to a mechanism found in steam engines.
Z8o4v TIL about the Lincos language, designed in 1960 to communicate with extra-terrestrial species, and based only on mathematics and logic and thus not requiring any knowledge about Earth or humans to understand
grEr9 TIL about the Battle of Jutland. Lasting only two days, it was the largest naval battle of the First World War, involving 250 ships and around 100,000 men. In the end, 6,000 British and 2,500 German sailors were dead. The British lost 14 ships to the Germans' 11.
kODr5 TIL Spaniards jokingly refer to former PM Luis Carrero Blanco as 'Spain's first astronaut', because his car was blown onto the balcony of a nearby building during his assassination
GPWJ TIL that watching people walk was America’s favorite spectator sport in the late 1800’s.