› added 3 months ago

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TIL that the name California, the state, was named after a novel character Queen Calafia. The novel Las sergas de Esplandián depicted California as an island.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wbZE TIL there are 54 tanks of liquid nitrogen unprotected on the streets of New York. They are used to cool underground cables and have to be replaced every 3 days. Despite being knocked over by cars, no tanks have exploded and there have been no major leaks.
PrJV TIL of the Lost Cosmonauts conspiracy theory, which alleges that the Soviet Union sent two or more men into space before Yuri Gagarin, but their attempts at being the first man in space ended in failure
Y7aOv TIL that the 90s Christian pop-rock band Creed performed their first show under the name of Naked Toddler. The name was changed immediately after this performance after the members realizing how bad it was.
Z44G TIL Metal “whiskers” can grow spontaneously from circuit board components, and have caused the failure of at least one satellite, and were detected in a failed relay at a nuclear power plant
jmPj TIL that “Himalayan” salt is actually mined in the Punjabi foothills of Pakistan, about 160 mi away from the mountain range. Also the pink color is caused by iron oxide aka rust. So a more accurate name would be Punjabi rust salt.