Post * wLoVY — Curious Curator

› added 7 years ago

137

TIL Oscar the Grouch was originally orange, and was meant to be magenta

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J1PQ1 TIL the term "port" to refer to a ship's lefthand side was for centuries much less common than the term "larboard", which only fell out of favor in the mid-1800s once the British Navy ordered its usage abandoned due to sounding too similar to "starboard".

Aroa TIL that the Coliseum in Rome was turned into a privately owned fortress, complete with towers and garrison (1084)

gMmQL TIL 40 papyri from 150-99 BC found in Egypt form an archive recording 3 generations of a common soldier's family. Personal letters, divorce papers, contracts andwills tell of his emmigration from Crete, his marriages, career and death, as well as the life of his daughter, her 4 siblings and her kids

vPGRK TIL the longest word in the English dictionary: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Defined as: it as "a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust"

PYpGw TIL that Sir Fred Hoyle, the British astronomer who formulated the 'Panspermia' theory, also coined the term, 'Big Bang Theory'. Not because he supported the idea - he was extremely sceptical of it - but used the term to mock and belittle it. Unfortunately for him, it stuck.