› added 9 years ago

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TIL that in 1802 there was a proposal to build a tunnel under the English Channel that would use horse drawn carriages and be lit by oil lamps.

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vwBx TIL that the world’s shortest commercially available flight is only 2 minutes long; can be as short as 47 seconds in ideal conditions!
8aGRb TIL In Japan, a festival called Kanamara Matsuri, or 'Festival of the Steel Phallus' celebrates the defeat of a vagina demon by an iron penis.
wlv1 TIL that the last Roman ruler of Britain, Magnus Maximus, married the daughter of a Welsh leader, thereby becoming the ancestor of several Welsh dynasties and kings up to 500 years later.
e0AxL TIL that "Banana Republic" was coined as a political term referring to a country(s) (Honduras and neighbors) that were exploited by a corporation (United Fruit Co.) for specific exports (yes, bananas). It is typically ruled by plutocracy and has a large poor working class that is also exploited.
nWEBb TIL the "Aztecs" never referred to themselves as that. They called themselves the Mexica (Me-SHEE-ka). The modern use of "Aztec" was coined by a Prussian Scholar in 1810, and derives from a term meaning "people from Aztlan", a mythical place of origin for several ethnic groups in central Mexico.