› added 9 years ago

250

TIL that the word ‘mortgage’ comes from Old French, meaning 'death pledge’

Read more etymonline.com

via reddit.com

LkDGd TIL Women and free African Americans could vote in New Jersey from 1776 to 1807, ~140 years before women gained suffrage nationwide.
YpymP TIL Led Zeppelin bought their private jet “The Starship” for part of their 1973 US tour for $30,000. Drummer John Bonham once flew the band from New York to LA even though he didn’t have a pilot’s license.
J1yGv TIL The classic Chinese takeout box was originally designed for holding oysters, and later honey. Early patents are from the late 1800s and association with Chinese food came with the rise of takeout in Post-WW2 United States.
R7054 TIL about Witold Pilecki, a polish intelligence agent in WW2 who volunteered to join a resistance operation to infiltrate a Nazi Death Camp and gather intelligence about the Nazi's crimes and inform Western Allies. Then, after two and a half years, he chose to escape. The camp was Auschwitz.
09R5 TIL of a little-known French law that if you were born in one of the USA states that was created from the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 or any other former French territory, the five-year waiting period for french citizenship may be waived.