› added 5 years ago

85

TIL that some historians claim, but haven't proven conclusively, that the name “sundae” was created in response to the “Blue Laws” which said that ice cream sodas could not be sold on Sundays because they were to “frilly.”

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kOw4E TIL that Iran has a disproportionately high rate of penile fracture due to a local practice called taghaandan, "to click or snap when forcibly pushing the erect penis down" to get rid of an unwelcome erection
KO0Ya TIL about Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) who delivered a 1950 Senate floor speech ("Declaration of Conscience") against McCarthyism - while he was seated behind her. McCarthy removed her from a subcommittee and financed her (unsuccessful) primary challenger. She voted for his censure in 1954.
ydJX TIL that during the Warsaw Pact’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czech citizens removed or defaced street signs except for those giving the direction back to Moscow.
4X68w TIL Before he was a famous musician Johnny Cash was a military code breaker for the US Air Force. He worked as a as a Morse Intercept Operator in Germany, handling the hardest jobs, intercepting Russian intelligence & deciphering code transmissions. He copied the 1st news of Stalin’s death.
R7yNw TIL that Agatha Christie wrote the final Hercule Poirot book "Curtain" in the 1940s, fearing she might die during the blitz and leave the book series without a proper ending. She kept writing more books after that, and once she decided she was done "Curtain" was finally published in 1975.