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TIL After Stephen Colbert called Windsor (Ontario) ‘the Earth’s rectum’ the CBC made a poll on their website asking if the description was good for the city and 85% said Yes.

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WkkZ8 TIL 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' nearly wasn't called 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. In the year leading up to its publication, Orwell vocalised his indecision over what to call his novel before settling on 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. Orwell took a long look at the title 'The Last Man in Europe'.
ADvBB TIL Frankenstein's monster as a character is public domain, as the novel was written in 1818, but the visual portrayal most people are familiar with (greenish skin, square-ish head, bolts in the neck, etc.) is the intellectual property of Universal Studios, as it originated in the 1931 film.
8aY9b TIL women in ancient Rome didn’t have unique first names, but instead were just named after their family name. (For example, all women from Gaius Julius Caesar’s family were named Julia. Sisters were told apart by using nicknames, such as ‘Julia the Younger’, ‘Julia the Elder’, etc.)
16Md8 TIL 'jaywalking' is a term coined by insurance companies to make it be seen negatively and shift the blame of accidents onto pedestrians
VBxZ TIL Britain forgot about a 50,000 pound bomb that never went off - only to have it be hit by lightning 20 years later, unleashing its destruction on…a cow