› added 9 years ago

431

TIL that the word “Quiz” was created by a Dublin theatre proprietor made a bet that he could make a nonsense word known throughout the city, and that the public would supply a meaning for it.

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via reddit.com

Z8D4R TIL that in 1974, after the premiere of The Godfather Part II, the gangster Meyer Lansky called Lee Strasberg, who played Hyman Roth (who was based off Lansky) to congratulate him on a job well done
jNd9p TIL Mexico’s presidential palace is 14 times larger than the White House and opened its doors to visitors for the first time in 2018
W7wBL TIL the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud is partly explainable by a genetic condition found among the Hatfield family that can cause short tempers and rage.
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.)
rgPe TIL the DC supervillain Brainiac was not named after the slang term for “an intellectual”. It was the other way around; the term originated with the supervillain’s name.