› added 4 years ago

101

TIL the official state sport of Maryland is jousting

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9YZR6 TIL the US sent 15-year MLB veteran Moe Berg to a 1944 lecture given by Werner Heisenberg (of uncertainty principle fame) with orders to shoot Heisenberg if his lecture indicated that the Germans were close to completing an atomic bomb.
GP4E TIL Icelandic has changed so little in the last 1,000 years that present-day Icelanders can read 12th Century texts without any difficulty.
NkPE TIL the UK is the only country not required to name itself on its postage stamps.
le0N TIL that when the KKK successfully lobbied to adopt a highway in Missouri, the Governor had the name of that stretch of road changed to Rosa Parks Highway
9Y85m TIL when Mark Twain started learning German, he noted humourously "In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl."