› added 4 years ago

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TIL when skyscrapers were still in its infancy, a stunt performance called "the Human Fly" became extremely popular across North America, which was when someone (usually with a blindfold) would scale/climb the building without a net, becoming the influence for "wall-crawler" Spider-Man decades later

R7ol7 TIL that a black cemetery in Florida disappeared 100 years ago. The local newspaper started looking for it and through old documents learned that maybe a public housing complex had been built over it. An archaeologist used ground-penetrating radar to see what was in the ground. He found 120 coffins.
VMJxD TIL Britain ended Capital Punishment after the unjust execution of Timothy Evans, for the murders of his wife and daughter. He'd accused his neighbour John Christie of the crime. Years later, Christie was discovered to be a serial killer who had killed 6 other woman and Evans's wife and daughter.
ADZea TIL that 3 years after illegally joining the Marines at the age of 14, Jack Lucas snuck onto a ship bound for Iwo Jima, stormed the beach without a rifle, and threw himself on top of two grenades to protect his team. He survived, and is the youngest person to earn the Medal of Honor at 17.
Vvx4 TIL During WWII they developed an ultra long range fighter to escort bomber raids in the Pacific…by joining two heavily modified P-51 Mustangs with one single wing. It still holds the record for longest flight of a piston powered fighter, after flying more than 5000 miles from Hawaii to New York
4WMb TIL in 1739 a 16 year old girl in South Carolina was instrumental in creating an economy accounting for 1/3 the value of the colony’s output pre-Revolution. George Washington held her in such high esteem, upon her death he travelled to Philadelphia to be one of her pallbearers.