› added 2 years ago

135

TIL there is a garbage patch in the Atlantic ocean that is three times the size of France.

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0d7l1 TIL that in 1949, Wernher von Braun wrote a science fiction novel in which he named the leader of Mars "Elon"
g5R7 TIL Until the late 1400s the word ‘girl’ just meant a child of either sex. If you had to differentiate between them, male children were referred to as 'knave girls’ and females were 'gay girls’. Equally, a boy could be called a 'knave child’ and a girl a 'maiden child’.
b6lNa TIL the bars on exit doors were coined "crash bars" due to the way people crashed into them to escape during emergencies. Before these devices were invented, people were often crushed to death as they tried to escape through doors that wouldn't easily open.
YpkB TIL there was a war named after Toyota, due to their pickup trucks being used as war vehicles
GGW4 TIL Pierce Brosnan lost both his wife and adopted daughter to ovarian cancer.