#factoftheday — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #factoftheday, aggregated by home.social.
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We still understand little of the Etruscan language.
Although the Etruscans influenced the ancient Greeks and Romans —the Romans even used Etruscan characters to create our current Latin script— we only have limited understanding of the Etruscan language.
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The phrase ‘Survival of the fittest’ was not coined by Charles Darwin, as often thought, but by philosopher Herbert Spencer.
Darwin coined ‘Natural selection’; Spencer’s description wrongly suggests that evolution favours those that ‘are the best’, instead of ‘the best adapted’.
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Though only Europe’s fourth-largest airport in passenger numbers, Amsterdam Schiphol has Europe’s largest number of runways, six.
Five runways exceed 3300 m, a shorter one for general aviation measures 2014 m, the various orientations providing wind resilience.
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Though only Europe’s fourth-largest airport in passenger numbers, Amsterdam Schiphol has Europe’s largest number of runways, six.
Five runways exceed 3300 m, a shorter one for general aviation measures 2014 m, the various orientations providing wind resilience.
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Though only Europe’s fourth-largest airport in passenger numbers, Amsterdam Schiphol has Europe’s largest number of runways, six.
Five runways exceed 3300 m, a shorter one for general aviation measures 2014 m, the various orientations providing wind resilience.
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Though only Europe’s fourth-largest airport in passenger numbers, Amsterdam Schiphol has Europe’s largest number of runways, six.
Five runways exceed 3300 m, a shorter one for general aviation measures 2014 m, the various orientations providing wind resilience.
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Though only Europe’s fourth-largest airport in passenger numbers, Amsterdam Schiphol has Europe’s largest number of runways, six.
Five runways exceed 3300 m, a shorter one for general aviation measures 2014 m, the various orientations providing wind resilience.
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In 2014, Spain announced a new law granting citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled in the 15th century.
The 1492 ‘Alhambra Decree’ had forced Jews to convert to Christianity or be expelled. The 2014 move acknowledged the historical injustice.
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Białowieża Forest is one of the last and the largest remaining parts of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain.
The World Heritage Site straddles the border between Poland and Belarus and is home to the wisent, Europe’s heaviest land animal.
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Pelicans have been living in London’s St James’s Park since 1664, when the Russian Ambassador gave a pair of Great White pelicans to King Charles II as a diplomatic gift.
The animals have always been manually replaced because, until June 2026, they never successfully hatched chicks.
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In 1913, Sigmund Freud, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Josip Tito, and Adolf Hitler all lived in Vienna.
Then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city attracted the ambitious from across Europe, including many that would later become historical figures.
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The short-range wireless technology Bluetooth is named after 10th-century Danish king Harald Blåtand (“bluetooth”), who brought Denmark’s tribes together into a single kingdom.
The Bluetooth logo is a rune merging the Futhark runes ᚼ and ᛒ, Harald’s initials.
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When Jews were expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire sent ships to bring them into their empire in the Eastern Mediterranean.
That is how Thessaloniki in Greece grew its large Sephardic Jewish community, until World War II.
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Emma Morano’s live spanned three centuries.
Born in 1899 in Civiasco, Kingdom of Italy, Emma Martina Luigia Morano died in 2017 at the age of 117, in Verbania, Italian Republic.
She survived an abusive marriage, the loss of her only son, two World Wars and 90 Italian governments.
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Ireland’s postal code system is unusually precise.
Where most systems group multiple addresses into a postcode, Eircode gives each address a unique code.
Many Irish addresses had no house number or name; the 2015 Eircode introduction fixed multiple issues at once.
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The Principality of Sealand is an unrecognised micronation on an offshore platform in the North Sea.
A sea fort built some 11 km off the English coast during WW2, it briefly housed pirate radio stations before being seized in 1967 by Roy Bates, who declared it independent.
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Although called the New Bridge, the Pont Neuf is actually the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris.
The first stone was laid in 1578 and it was completed in 1607.
Unusual for the time, it was designed without buildings on it, allowing a view of the Seine.
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In 1917, the British Royal Family changed their last name from ‘Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha’ to a more English-sounding ‘Windsor’.
It was the height of WWI, anti-German sentiment was high, and King George V chose a new name based on the English town with the famous castle.
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Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a village in Wales.
The name was created in the 19th century to attract tourists and it now has the second longest one-word place name in the world.
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Frédéric Beigbeder’s 2000 breakthrough novel, criticising the advertising world, had a varying title depending on the currency and edition because its title was its price.
Launched in France as ‘99F’, costing 99 Francs, it was renamed 14,99€ after the introduction of the euro.
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Andorra is the world’s largest country without an airport.
Its nearest airport is ‘Andorra–La Seu d’Urgell’, located 12 km south of the country of 90 000, in neighbouring Spain.
Its nearest large airport is ‘Barcelona El Prat Airport’, a three-hour bus ride away.
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The world’s shortest scheduled passenger flight is between Westray and Papa Westray in Scotland.
The flight between the islands covers a distance of just 2.7 km and takes about one minute. The record flight time is 53 seconds.
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The Baltic Way was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989.
Two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning 675 km across the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
At the time, the countries were occupied by the Soviet Union.
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Though only Europe’s fourth-largest airport in passenger numbers, Amsterdam Schiphol has Europe’s largest number of runways, six.
Five runways exceed 3300 m, a shorter one for general aviation measures 2014 m, the various orientations providing wind resilience.
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EN 13402 is a European standard for size labelling of clothes.
Based on actual body dimensions measured in centimetres, its aim is to make it easier for people to find fitting clothes by ensuring size consistency across brands and countries of origin.
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In 1957 six countries signed the Treaty of Rome to establish the European Economic Community.
The treaty between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany was a milestone promoting peace, stability, and economic prosperity in Europe through integration.
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There were just 33 years between the Spitfire and the Concorde maiden flights
On 5 March 1936, Captain Joseph “Mutt” Summers flew the first Spitfire test flight.
On 2 March 1969, Major André Turcat flew the first Concorde test flight.
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While tumbleweed is iconic in Westerns set in the Americas, the plant is originally from eastern Europe.
The tumbleweed (or ‘Russian Thistle’) didn’t arrive in North America from Europe until the 1870’s, most likely with shipments of seeds.
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In January 2004, Georgia reinstated its historical national flag, the “five cross flag”, after a hiatus of 500 years.
Following Georgia’s 1991 independence from the Soviet Union it had become a symbol of national roots, historical identity and the 2003 Rose Revolution.
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Until 1752, the new year in England and Wales began on 25 March.
When, in 1752, England switched to the Gregorian calender, 11 days were skipped as 14 September followed 2 September.
To this day, the UK’s tax year starts on 6 April, 11 days after 25 March, the original new year.
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The peace symbol was first used in 1958 at a protest in London.
Designed by Gerald Holtom, it first appeared on signs at a protest held by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and shows the letters N and D in flag semaphore.
It has since become an international peace symbol.
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The Chupa Chups logo was designed in 1969 by surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.
A friend of the company’s founder, Dalí rebranded the entire visual identity, from colours to typeface and the logo placement on the top of the wrapper.
The design remains largely unchanged.
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11 April 1954 is calculated to be the most uneventful day of the 20th century.
In 2010, William Tunstall-Pedoe, a computer scientist at Cambridge University, used a computer model to rank historical events by relevance.
Using millions of data points, 11 April 1954 ranked the lowest.
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Russia’s 1917 ‘October Revolution’ took place in November.
The second part of the Russian Revolution happened in what we now call November because Russia didn't switch to the current ‘Gregorian’ calendar system until after the revolution.
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Russia’s 1917 ‘October Revolution’ took place in November.
The second part of the Russian Revolution happened in what we now call November because Russia didn't switch to the current ‘Gregorian’ calendar system until after the revolution.
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Russia’s 1917 ‘October Revolution’ took place in November.
The second part of the Russian Revolution happened in what we now call November because Russia didn't switch to the current ‘Gregorian’ calendar system until after the revolution.
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Marie Skłodowska Curie was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields.
She received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with her husband Pierre for researching radioactivity, and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering radium and polonium.
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#FactOfTheDay: Anti-poverty tax credits are linked to declines in reports of child neglect, youth violence, and juvenile convictions. Learn more: https://www.prb.org/resources/anti-poverty-tax-credits-linked-to-declines-in-reports-of-child-neglect-youth-violence-and-juvenile-convictions/ #TaxDay #ChildAbusePreventionMonth #ThrivingFamilies
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#FactOfTheDay: When compared with their white peers, rates of exposure to at least two adverse childhood experiences were more than 1.5 times higher for Hispanic/Latino children.
Learn more about why this matters and what can be done: https://www.kidsdata.org/blog/?p=10752
#Adversity #ACEs #ChildhoodAdversity #ToxicStress #ChildAbusePreventionMonth #ThrivingFamilies -
#FactOfTheDay: When compared with their white peers, rates of exposure to at least two adverse childhood experiences were more than twice as high for African American/Black children.
Learn more about why this matters and what can be done: https://www.kidsdata.org/blog/?p=10752
#Adversity #ACEs #ChildhoodAdversity #ToxicStress #ChildAbusePreventionMonth #ThrivingFamilies -
#FactOfTheDay: Estimates from 2017-2021 show that more than 1 in 7 (15%) had two or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and 1 in 25 (4%) had four ACEs or more.
Learn more: https://www.kidsdata.org/blog/?p=10752
#Adversity #ACEs #ChildhoodAdversity #ToxicStress #ChildAbusePreventionMonth #ThrivingFamilies -
#FactOfTheDay: Estimates from 2017-2021 show that, from birth until the time of survey, more than 1 in 3 California children (34%) ages 0 to 17 had experienced at least one adverse childhood experiece (ACE).
Learn more: https://www.kidsdata.org/blog/?p=10752
#Adversity #ACEs #ChildhoodAdversity #ToxicStress #ChildAbusePreventionMonth #ThrivingFamilies
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#FactOfTheDay: Anti-poverty tax credits are linked to declines in reports of child neglect, youth violence, and juvenile convictions.
#TaxDay #EITC #CTC #ChildTaxCredit #ChildAbusePreventionMonth #ThrivingFamilies #ChildHealth #ChildhoodAdversity