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TIL the constellation Canes Venatici exists because of a double translation error. From Greek for "club", the Arabic translator didn't know the word and rendered it as "staff with a hook". Then the Latin translator misread "hook" (kullab) as "dogs" (kilab).

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dDLJ9 TIL that from 1955 into the ’70s, Campbell’s marketed 'soup on the rocks' and the 'frisky sour'—beef bouillon cocktails—as chic, low-calorie alternatives to alcohol, tapping into post-war trends in nutrition and style aimed at housewives.
jNdgE TIL A convicted killer had his death sentence thrown out when it couldn’t be proven that he had assaulted a girl he had murdered. Believing he was now immune, he sent a taunting letter to the prosecutor, admitting the assault. It was used to successfully re-convict him to death.
XEO1P TIL that the eagle featured on U.S. currency was modeled on a real bald eagle named Peter who used to live on top of the U.S. Mint. He died in 1836 but, like many animals whose admirers just can't let go, Peter was stuffed and is still on display inside the very building upon which he once nested.
neAVG TIL In search for a new mathematical model to replace the decimal system, Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebniz read a 3000 year old Chinese book “I Ching”. Fascinated by the simplicity of Yin and Yang, Liebniz used this philosophy to create the binary number system.
v1erL Today I learned Daimler (Mercedes) acknowledges their participation during the nazi era and has a page dedicated to it.