› added 11 years ago

73

TIL the Coconut was named by Spanish and Portuguese explorers who thought the three holes made it look like a human face. “Coco” means grinning face. The English made it “coconut” in 1613.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

QJ0Q9 TIL about the '91 Louisiana governor's race, which pitted corrupt Democrat Edwin Edwards against former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. Voters were urged to "vote for the lizard, not the wizard." Duke lost by only 11% despite near-total denouncement by the Republican party, including President Bush.
KOAJ TIL that there is a cemetery in Romania famous for their vibrant and colorful tombstones that artfully depict scenes from the buried person’s life, most often involving how they died. Each tombstone also has a poetic epitaph inscription.
1aRj8 TIL of the late December Saturnalia, a festival celebrated for a 1,000 years by the Romans when people wore more informal clothes, gave presents to each other, had parties and slaves were allowed to gamble and get drunk in public.
epKV6 TIL that NASA included 3 LEGO figurines aboard their Juno spacecraft for its journey to Jupiter. This was part of the "Bricks in Space" outreach program between NASA and the LEGO Group. The purpose of which was to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
ompo TIL Nelson Rockefeller died of a heart attack at age 70 while he was sleeping with his mistress, age 25