› added 7 years ago

95

TIL that Atari was never a Japanese company. The original Atari, Inc. was Californian. The current company is French. However, the name comes from a Japanese board game that the founders played.

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mJgP TIL after French soldier Jean Bernadotte showed kindness to a few Swedish soldiers, he became so popular in Sweden that the Swedes decided to make him their king when a vacancy came up, despite him never having set foot in Sweden before. The House of Bernadotte rules Sweden to this day.
p8eve TIL of Charles Vance Millar, a Toronto lawyer who died in 1926 with no relatives. In his will, he left all his remaining assets (equivalent to $9 million CAD) to the woman who had the most babies within 10 years of his death, creating a "baby race" where woman competed to have the most babies.
Z8jYv TIL the first European explorer to see Hawaii was Captain James Cook on Nov. 26, 1778, when he and his two ships anchored offshore of Kahului. However, he did not come ashore on Maui. As Cook sailed down Maui’s northeastern coastline, a royal double-hulled canoe approached from the Hana coastline.
KO7E4 TIL the 1979 disco hit "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" almost became the national anthem of Sierra Leone after a 1992 coup.
VJ94 TIL, during a visit to Egypt in 2012, Hillary Clinton was pelted with tomatoes and shoes, while the protesters chanted “Monica, Monica”