› added 7 years ago

500

TIL one of the earliest and most famous Muslims to travel through New Orleans and the New World was Prince Abdul-Rahman Ibrahim ibn Sori. The Prince read the Bible and admired its teachings but said “His principal objections are that Christians do not follow them.”

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BgrRD TIL Virgin Atlantic kept having passengers steal their popular salt and pepper shakers. Instead of removing them from the plane, they placed the words "pinched from Virgin Atlantic" at the bottom. The shakers then became dinner table conversation pieces and free advertisement.
4XgwN TIL Babylonian women had to, by law, consort with 1 stranger who threw a silver coin into their lap while they sat in the "District of Venus". As Babylonian women were usually tall and beautiful, some uglier women had to wait up to 4 years for their coin, before returning home.
p8PGO TIL The Portia Hypothesis is a scientific theory that claims that women with masculine sounding names, do better in male dominated fields such as law and engineering, than women with feminine names. It is named after a female Shakespeare character who dresses up as a male lawyer and wins a trial.
KGA4 TIL the Beatles played a demo copy of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” before its release at full volume from an open apartment window at 6AM. Instead of complaining, the residents opened their windows and listened, aware they were hearing unreleased Beatles music.
W9Do TIL 95% of commercially grown avocados come from trees descended from a single tree owned by a California mail carrier.