› added 4 years ago

48

TIL - in 1941 people in Northern California and Southwestern Oregon started a push to form a new US State called Jefferson. The counties for a couple weeks would "secede every Thursday," using rifles to interdict drivers on Route 99 and hand them copies of their proclamation of independence.

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W7dw9 TIL Swedish soprano Jenny Lind's American tour from 1850 to 1852 caused a frenzy and she gave 93 concerts under PT Barnum’s management. Local businesses inserted “Jenny Lind” into advertisements to catch attention
J1Ro8 TIL That the last naval battle of WW2 took place between ships under sail complete with combat by boarding party.
epa9E TIL that Tour de France cyclists can eat up to 8000 calories per day averaging around 5000 daily. Three weeks, 21 stages, 3,351km, 176 cyclists and a combined burn of 25 million calories.
xVw9w TIL about Frances Cleveland. When her husband, Grover Cleveland became president in 1893, she was 21. This makes her the youngest First Lady in US history.
yQmkV TIL not only does the Aztec word that became avocado mean “testicle” (because it grows in pairs), but the fruit was apparently adapted for megafauna like mammoths and giant sloths who would eat it and poop out its unusually large seed in distant locations.