Post * LgAP — Curious Curator

› added 12 years ago

207

TIL the English language has a mark resembling an umlaut (called a diaeresis) used to show 2 vowels are also 2 syllables, as in coöperation. The mark is mostly defunct, but still used by The New Yorker magazine.

Read more

6EOWQ TIL that locusts are mutated grasshoppers. When an abundance of food is followed by a drought they are forced to group, causing the insect to mutate in a matter of hours from green to brown, solitary to swarming, and become long distance flyers. Up until 1920 they were considered 2 different species

n1m7 TIL In 1931 when President Ronald Reagan played on the football team for Eureka College, took in two rival team black players in his personal home, who were denied admission into a hotel when they were going to play against Eureka. He remained friends with one of the men until they died in 1981

NlW6 TIL of the almost 200 current member states of the United Nations, the British have, at some point in history, invaded and established a military presence in 171 of them.

OoO74 TIL that not only did then-future Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist & Sandra Day O'Connor date during their time at Stanford Law School, but he actually asked her to marry him as well. She turned down his proposal. 30 years later, however, they found themselves serving on the Court together.

awJ89 TIL that the first nuclear powered satellite in space failed after just 43 days and it will stay in orbit for 3-4000 years. There are also more than 30 Russian nuclear powered satellites in space currently.