› added 10 years ago

78

TIL that the state of Washington could have been named Columbia, but was instead named Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia

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69Ex8 TIL that after his military service, Lynn Compton (portrayed by Neal McDonough in Band of Brothers) was the prosecutor of Sirhan Sirhan for the assassination of Robert Kennedy
ddxQ TIL While serving as the POTUS in 2002, President Bush choked on a pretzel causing him to lose consciousness and hitting his head on the way down. The only reason he survived is because the pretzel dissolved allowing air to enter back into his lungs where he regained consciousness.
4XxaN TIL David Bowie was a big SpongeBob SquarePants fan, and he even starred in one of the animated series' movies.
X0nkR TIL the longest one-syllable word in English is squirreled
4Xoeg TIL of Joseph Tartaro who applied for a vanity license plate with the California DMV that said "NULL" as a joke. Because of how computers interpret that word it wreaked havoc in the system and he began to receive dozens of citations in bulk from all over the state.