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TIL The word “Alphabet” is actually just the beginning of the Greek AlphaBet(a)

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NXd48 TIL Flat adverbs, where the adjective and adverb have the same form, used to be much more common in the 18th century until a bunch of grammarians decided adverbs must end in -ly. Examples of surviving flat adverbial usage today include “sit tight” and “go slow”.
d06d TIL: Paris only has one stop sign in the entire city!
l76KB TIL as of late 2011 Texas no longer provides executed felons a last meal. The tradition had existed for almost a century, but after a high profile incident where a murderer refused to eat anything the state legislature passed a law to end the practice entirely. Most states instead have a price cap.
JY65k TIL Post-it Notes were created by accident when a chemist tried to create a super-strong glue but ended up with a super-weak one. Even the now iconic yellow colour was an accident as it was the only one available in the next-door lab.
8aGZa TIL "2001: A Space Odyssey" was initially very poorly received by audiences due to it's slow place and ambiguous plot. The movie became more successful when masses of people began flocking to watch the movie while stoned, with MGM even advertising it as "The ultimate trip".