› added 9 years ago

67

TIL “Moby Dick” was inspired by “Mocha Dick”, a famous albino whale who survived many skirmishes with whalers; he finally was killed coming to the aid of a distraught cow whose calf had just been killed

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VMe5k TIL For the Ancient Greeks, the word Barbarian (Bárbaros) originally meant anyone who didn't speak Greek. They would imitate other languages using onomatopoeia "bar bar bar." Even Romans were considered to be barbarians by Ancient Greek standards.
KOKZa TIL Abraham Lincoln was clinically depressed for most of his life
nWNLW TIL that George Curzon, the future Viceroy of India, had a wealthy but miserable childhood which included a demented freak of a governess who made him wear a hat with cruel and hateful insults written on it in public.
x6vw1 TIL Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig's last sentence was meticulously typed by his wife as she recited the alphabet and he told her when to stop but he didn't finish as he was interrupted and it concerned a "point of all points, which the Lord has truly revealed to me in my sleep"
VZd4 TIL Texas is so expansive that El Paso, in the western corner of the state, is closer to San Diego, California than to Houston.