› added 12 years ago

195

TIL Rapper T.I. once talked a stranger out of jumping out a 22-story window.

Read more people.com

via reddit.com

KYjJ6 TIL that there are three neighboring countries in South America that have the respective official languages english, dutch and french.
dD9N7 TIL that oxymoron is one itself. “oxy” = sharp, “moron” = “dull” - which also makes it an autological word.
7JKP TIL that the idiom “the cat’s out of the bag” is derived from a practice by some merchants who sold piglets in bags. If the buyer was distracted, the merchant would quickly switch the piglet w/ a cat. The buyer wouldn’t realize until they got home and let the cat, and not a piglet, out of the bag.
Ardw TIL Genghis Khan would marry off a daughter to the king of an allied nation, dismissing his other wives. Then he would assign his new son-in-law to military duty in the Mongol wars, while the daughter took over the rule. Most sons-in-law died in combat, giving him shield around the Mongol lands
9LmB TIL that until 1993, the BT Tower was an official state secret despite being a 177-metre tall structure in the middle of central London that was open to the public