› added 11 years ago

63

TIL in the Middle Ages, chess pawns had individual names that represented the occupations of citizens.

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j6VDp TIL that The world's oldest underground station is considered to be "Baker Street" station in London, which opened in 1863 as part of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway .
R67j TIL: Hebrew became extinct as a spoken native language around 200 CE. It was revived in Paris on 13 October 1881 when a man called Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his friends agreed to exclusively speak Hebrew in their conversations.
epM4b TIL that during World War II, a British zoo placed a female panda named Ming in an underground shelter to keep her safe from bombing raids. Ming became a local celebrity and was considered a symbol of resilience during the war.
x6J4w TIL that “Big in Japan” was written by Alphaville’s lead singer about two of his junkie friends. "That line has a certain meaning…. 'I'm not a loser because in Japan I'm really big.' It's the lie of the loser and it fit perfectly into the story of these junkies, in a very tragic way…”
XEKbD TIL that Admiral Sir William James, born in 1881, was, as a young child, the model for a famous painting titled "Bubbles" which was subsequently used to advertise Pears Soap. This fame dogged him throughout his life and he was regularly nicknamed "Bubbles", much to his chagrin.