1. Noah Webster of Merriam-Webster is the reason why some American spelling is different than British spelling. There were already discrepancies, and he promoted “spelling reform” to distance America from British standards.
He changed the “ce” in words like defence, offence, and pretence to “se” . . . dropped the “u” from words like humour and colour . . . and dropped the “k” from words like publick and musick.
However, some of his other proposals were rejected. Like: Changing “tongue” to “tung,” “women” to “wimmen,” “island” to “iland,” and “thumb” to “thum.”
2. The Algerian national anthem was originally written on a prison wall in BLOOD. It was written by an Algerian poet in 1956 when Algeria was a French colony, and he was being held by the French troops.
3. The word for a single piece of confetti is “confetto.”
4. During the course of your life, you’re breathing in molecules of air that have been breathed in by almost every OTHER person who’s ever lived. It’s not guaranteed or anything. But yeah, mathematically it’s possible.
5. The oldest living civilization on Earth is the Aboriginal Australians. DNA testing confirms they’re at least 72,000 years old.
