› added 1 year ago

50

TIL The Philippines got its name from king Philip II of Spain, while Indonesia is thought to be derived from Greek with indos meaning "India" and nesos meaning "islands."

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

mpxM TIL that for 15 years, the Phoebus Cartel planned the obsolescence of light bulbs by limiting them to 1000 hours usage to make consumers buy more and fined manufacturers whose lightbulbs lasted longer than this.
OodGg TIL that Tolkien invented the concept of Orcs for purely for Lord of the Rings - basing their name off of an ancient Roman God of the Underworld
KOgBQ TIL That as McDonald's came to the former Communist nations of Eastern Europe, it became a point of national pride to have one, even being included in football chants to taunt those countries who didn't yet have a McDonalds.
OGA9L TIL in 1905, a minor league baseball player named Andy Oyler hit a home run where the ball only traveled two feet. It had been raining and he hit it right in front of him into the mud and the defense couldn’t find the ball before he rounded the bases.
W9w9 Til Jackie Chan was scheduled to film a scene on top of one of the twin towers on 9/11, lucky for him It was cancelled.