› added 6 years ago

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TIL Quebec "unofficially" got rid of Slavery in 1798, 35 years before it was abolished, because the Chief of Justice couldn't find any laws to punish an escaped slave named Charlotte who refused to return to her master- so he set her free. Other slaves found out and started doing the same thing.

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5V7kn TIL where the word "Gerrymander" comes from. The 1812 Massachusetts Congress redrew the state districts to give their party electoral advantage, which Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed into law. A local paper compared the shape of one district to a salamander, coining the term "Gerry-mander", which stuck.
7rLjM TIL, the name of the speech impediment that prevents people from pronouncing the letter R, actually begins with the letter R. Rhotacism.
1660P TIL in the 1960s David Stein sold three watercolors purportedly by artist Marc Chagall to an art dealer. They were fake as Stein had painted them that day. He may have gotten away with it, but Marc Chagall just happened to meet the dealer on that very same day. Stein became an artist after prison.
vPyp4 TIL that the fast food chain Popeyes isn't named after the cartoon character, but Gene Hackman's character from The French Connection.
vPYPR TIL that in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Sybok is searching for Sha Ka Ree, a place of ultimate knowledge. The name Sha Ka Ree was a word play on "Sean Connery", whom the producers wanted to play Sybok.