› added 7 years ago

83

TIL that English surpassed Chinese as the most spoken language in the world in 2017 by 20 million people, according to Ethnologue

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via reddit.com

wLOaY TIL one of the origin theories of the modern military salute comes from France. Knights were thought to greet one another in respect by lifting their visor with their free hand to reveal their face. The hand gesture of lifting the visor being similar to the "salute" hand gesture we do today.
R5VO7 TIL Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind was friends with Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes as struggling musicians, and one day they each played each other a new song they made. Those songs were Semi Charmed Life and Whats Up. These two songs they played would help lead to 17 million records being sold.
VBYM8 TIL we thought dolphins couldn't breathe through their mouths until 2016, when a dolphin with a damaged blowhole learned to mouth breathe
NX5oN TIL “Every year, tourists who come to the province of León at this time are surprised to read signs in the bars encouraging the killing of Jews. You don't have to worry, it's normal.”
A9bB TIL that the mega-detector, called IceCube, took 10 years to build 2,400 meters below the Antarctic ice. At one cubic km, it is bigger than the Empire State building, the Chicago Sears Tower - now known as Willis Tower - and Shanghai’s World Financial Center combined