The “Pirate speak” from movies and books was an actual distinct dialect of English which was spoken until the 19th century in the west country. It became associated with pirates due to the strong seafaring tradition from the area.
Dubai man Mohammad Basheer bought a lottery ticket before
Dubai man Mohammad Basheer bought a lottery ticket before boarding an Emirates flight that crashed. He escaped the crash and won the lottery.
Currency shaped like knives was in circulation…
Currency shaped like knives was in circulation in China from 770 to 220 BC.
Some Koreans are trying to rename their country back to “Corea”…
Some Koreans are trying to rename their country back to “Corea”. They believe that Japan changed the spelling to “Korea” so Japanese athletes would march first at the 1908 Olympics.
The word “hobbit” has been found exactly once in…
The word “hobbit” has been found exactly once in texts predating Tolkien, in a list of magical creatures with no explanation or context.
Reading silently didn’t happen until the dark ages
Reading silently didn’t happen until the dark ages, when monks took a vow of silence. Before that, reading was done aloud, which is why the Romans had no punctuation and instead, chanted words to rhythms. Reading silently uses an entirely different part of the brain.
Parents who are concerned about how their children’s names…
Parents who are concerned about how their children’s names may affect them in life can now hire services to name their kids for them. Services have popped up all over the US and Europe, with one Swiss agency charging $29,000 to research and recommend your child’s name.
Cherophobia (fear of happiness) is an attitude towards…
Cherophobia (fear of happiness) is an attitude towards happiness in which individuals may deliberately avoid experiences that invoke positive emotions or happiness because they think something bad will happen after.
A Russian dog, whose owners were killed in a car crush
A Russian dog, whose owners were killed in a car crush, refused to leave the site of the accident. The dog waited for them, until it died 7 years later. The city informally adopted the dog and dedicated a statue to honor its loyalty.
Penicillin was formally discovered when Alexander Fleming…
Penicillin was formally discovered when Alexander Fleming did not tidy up some petri dishes filled with bacteria before going on vacation. A penicillin spore then spontaneously landed in a petri dish and caused enough damage to the bacteria for Fleming to notice this when he came back.