› added 3 years ago

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TIL - Greenland got its name in 986 AD from the explorer Erik the Red's attempt to lure settlers to the ice-covered island: "it would induce settlers to go there, if the land had a good name".

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oBPvR TIL that in post-Soviet Russia, feral dogs have learned to commute on the subway to broaden their food scavenging range - including getting to know which stops they are looking for based on the announcements over the PA.
p0pO TIL that due to the country’s ultra low fertility rate, South Koreans are projected to go extinct by the year 2750.
PYLpJ TIL that in 1921 a thriving black town in Oklahoma was looted and burned to the ground by an angry white mob. Up to 300 people died that day in what is now called “The Tulsa Massacre”.
5YpD9 TIL whales spouting water out of blowholes is a common error propagated in children's books and movies (the whale would be drowning if it did so). A 2016 scientific survey of children's books featuring whales and cetaceans revealed 74/116 had factual errors, including almost half of the non-fiction.
wLG5J TIL General George Thomas was arguably better than both Robert E Lee and Ulysses S Grant. He never lost a battle and once completely destroyed a confederate army, earning him the nickname "sledgehammer". History has forgotten because he was too modest and always downplayed his own accomplishments