› added 2 years ago

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TIL about the Shreveport Rate Case, a SCOTUS case that allowed the federal government to regulate intrastate commerce when it is needed to regulate interstate commerce. It was brought against an interstate railway that charged shipping rates that favored Texan cities, a policy mandated by the state.

oL8W TIL a group of vultures around a carcass is called a “wake”.
OXDR TIL George V did not want his son Edward VIII to become King and told his private secretary that ‘After I am dead the boy will ruin himself in 12 months.’ After George’s death, Edward was King for 10 months and 3 weeks before giving up the throne.
E1MrX TIL due to c-sections & evolution, women in the future may not be able to birth naturally. Babies heads which are too large prevent them from being able to pass through the mother’s pelvis usually causing death, but are pulled out via c-section. They then live to pass on the genes to their children
lkxV TIL that Patrick Stewart once said that, “All of those years in Royal Shakespeare Company – playing all those kings, emperors, princes and tragic heroes – were nothing but preparation for sitting in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise.”
woxPP TIL UFO sightings date back to ancient Rome: in 218 BCE, during the Punic Wars, ‘phantom ships’ were reportedly seen in the sky near Rome; in 76 BCE, Pliny the Elder recorded a story of a ‘spark’ that fell from the sky, increased in size, and then returned to the heavens