› added 9 years ago

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TIL Lynyrd Skynyrd named thier band after a gym teacher who suspended them for having long hair. His name was Leonard Skinner.

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pYZkN TIL the 1975 Haicheng earthquake is widely considered the most successful example of earthquake prediction, with the city having been evacuated beforehand, resulting in few deaths. However, the prediction was only possible due to a special foreshock sequence, making it useless for future prediction.
0dWMR TIL: In China for about three years around 1900, a secret martial arts training club tried to overthrow the Chinese government & force out foreigners. Known to the West as "The Boxer Rebellion," the name literally comes from the fact that members fought unarmed using Chinese forms of unarmed combat.
PYyrE TIL that "Rapture," by the pop/rock group Blondie, is the first single with rap vocals to reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The video, with cameos by rap pioneer Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quiñones and Jean-Michel Basquiat, is considered the first rap video broadcast on MTV.
7raV7 TIL "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh spent millions of dollars over seven years quietly bankrolling efforts to free the West Memphis 3, three Arkansas men who supporters say were wrongly convicted of the murders of three children.
Bvwe TIL that the FBI tried to infiltrate a mosque in Irvine by sending one of their agents to incite terrorism. The people of the mosque reported him to the FBI instead.