› added 1 year ago

64

TIL Australia nearly became a republic in a 1999 referendum but was defeated 45/54

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b6kR0 TIL Priss Fotheringham, famed for popularising 'chucking', an act dating back to ancient Rome. She'd stand on her head naked, legs apart, allowing patrons to toss coins into her "commodity". Legend has it she could fit 16 half-crowns, a notable achievement per modern commentators.
AxP7 TIL The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States from 5 states during the civil war used the word slave or a variant over 80 times. It also referred to the north as “non-slave-holding States”.
84pX TIL that people on the south Pacific Pitcairn Islands, descended from British mutineers and accompanying Tahitians, speak an English creole that is heavily influenced by naval lingo. “To fall over” is “to capsize” while for “everyone” they say “all hands” (from “all hands on deck”).
d8ewZ TIL that the first woman to establish a bank in the USA was an African-American named Maggie L. Walker in 1903. The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank was one of the few to survive the Great Depression and, after a merger, still exists today.
mOdY TIL Guillermo del Toro was working with Disney on an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows but left the production team as an executive said: ‘Could you give Toad a skateboard and make him say, 'radical dude’. Del Toro responded: 'It’s been a pleasure…’