› added 12 years ago

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TIL the Chinese name for America is Meiguo, which literally means “beautiful country”

Read more china-embassy.org

via reddit.com

78AQZ TIL of the Isochrone Curve - a shape with unique properties. If you drop two balls along the curve at different points, they will reach the midpoint at exactly the same time.
kOKxe TIL Laura Bullion, an Old West outlaw who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch gang, lived in Memphis until her death in 1961
yVQD8 TIL the Spanish-built fort of Castillo de San Marcos in Florida was built of coquina - sedimentary rock formed from compressed shells of dead marine organisms - and would "swallow" cannonballs.
wmr8 TIL that the ♥ shape came from the Silphium plant, a now extinct contraceptive plant used by the Romans
8ZVP TIL when the US Navy refused to cooperate during the filming of the movie Crimson Tide, filmmakers waited outside Pearl Harbor for a submarine to head to sea and chased it with a boat and helicopter to get the shot of it submerging.