› added 5 years ago

392

TIL China's Qing Dynasty attempted various reforms to try to save itself. Local assemblies had begun to meet in 1909 and the dynasty had worked out a timetable for creating a constitutional monarchy, with a constitution planned for 1912 and a parliament the following year

Read more afe.easia.columbia.edu

via reddit.com

0d4ey TIL: That the word embiggens and cromulent created by The Simpsons added to the US dictionary in 2018.
GQog TIL U.S. Military Working Dogs have ranks: they are always one rank above their handler, so that hurting one intentionally would have the same consequences as striking an officer
Y9g7 TIL before South Park, the creators made a short film called Jesus vs. Frosty. A Fox executive saw the film and offered them $1k to make another short (Jesus vs. Santa) as a video xmas card that he could send to friends. The film caught the attention of Comedy Central which led to the creation of SP
pe8 TIL that Joanne Rowling, better known by her initials J K, does not have a middle name, according to her birth certificate. The use of the author’s initials instead of her full name was a marketing ploy designed to make her work acceptable to boys, who actively choose not to read books by women.
mx7aP TIL the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is part of the Department of Commerce because President Nixon's Secretary of the Interior publicly criticized the administration's Vietnam War policy. Nixon punished him by putting the new agency under a different department.