› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Erik The Red who discovered Greenland, called it Greenland in spite of its ice cover, because people would be attracted to go there if it had a favorable name, and used it as a trick to lure settlers to Greenland

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1bBV TIL that before 1600, a game of chess could be won by capturing all of the opponent’s pieces, leaving a bare king; a style of play known as “annihilation”. In Medieval times, players considered it nobler to win by checkmate, so annihilation became a half win for a while, until it was abandoned.
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