› added 1 year ago

66

TIL The Ethiopian new year is celebrated on September 11.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

GYVk4 TIL During WWI, cotton was in high demand for the manufacture of uniforms and explosives. For bandages, doctors turned to using sphagnum moss. It can hold up to 22 times its own weight in liquid -- twice as absorptive as cotton. The moss is also antiseptic, making the surrounding environment acidic
1x4d TIL Oprah Winfrey was named “Orpah” after the biblical character in the Book of Ruth on her birth certificate, but people mispronounced it regularly and Oprah stuck.
5ojD TIL that neuroscientists have found that three seconds is the average duration of reciting a verse from a poem. This average duration holds true for poems all over the world and it is thought that it reflects the time it takes for the brain to integrate information.
e0OYD TIL that Qeen Elizabeth II’s portrait has graced the currencies of 33 different countries , Canada being the first in 1935.
xV5L1 TIL Before the addition of the yellow traffic light in 1920, drivers only had a buzzer to warm them when the light would turn from green to red.