› added 7 months ago

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TIL that Edgar Allen Poe advocated for the land of the United States of America to be named Appalachia instead.

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0wjL5 TIL that rats left unaided in water will drown in a few minutes because they feel hopeless, but if they know there is hope of being rescued they will last for days.
Y9rB TIL: Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger) failed to get the Han Solo part in Star Wars, then he mentioned the movie to the bum crashing on his couch, Mark Hamill
Zpp4o TIL Dublin, Ireland, was once the Viking Kingdom of "Dyflin", founded by the Norse in the 9th century. "Dubh Linn" means "black pool" in Irish. Under their rule, Dublin became the biggest slave port in Western Europe. The last king of Dublin was killed by the Norman conquerors in 1171.
v1d78 TIL During the Trial of Joan of Arc, the prosecution, headed by Pierre Cauchon, sent an agent to France to collect dirt on her life in her home village. Cauchon was enraged when the agent "had found nothing concerning Joan that he would not have liked to find about his own sister".
ngj9 TIL that during World War II a Dutch minesweeper evaded the Japanese for eight days disguised as an island. The crew covered the decks in cut trees and painted exposed surfaces to look like rocks. They moved only at night and anchored closed to shore by day, eventually escaping to Australia.