› added 2 weeks ago

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TIL that Cunard intended to name its largest ship after the late Queen Victoria. It asked the current King for permission to name it after "Britain's greatest queen", but the King, thinking they were referring to his wife, Queen Mary, agreed. Cunard was forced to change the name to the Queen Mary.

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Bgpyb TIL "Waltzing Matilda" is Australian slang for traveling on foot with a bundle of belongings. In the 1895 song an itinerant narrator takes a stray sheep for dinner, and after a pursuit by lawmen he drowns in a watering hole and becomes a ghost.
ADJOB TIL that Shirley Temple, the child actress and namesake of the drink, was a US ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution that saw democracy return to Czechoslovakia.
yVO1M TIL that a 'broken heart' can actually be fatal. "Acute emotional stress can cause the left ventricle of the heart to be 'stunned' or paralyzed, causing heart attack-like symptoms including strong chest, arm or shoulder pains, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness, nausea and vomiting."
0dMPj TIL in 2007 the Hard Rock Cafe brand was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, making all Hard Rock Casinos tribal casinos.
Zp7P4 TIL about hunger stones. These are stones submerged in water designed to warn of drought conditions when they appear. Stones in Germany date back to the 1400s and some include the words "If you see me, weep". The stones started appearing again in 2018.