› added 5 years ago

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TIL: Portland Oregon's first bicycling boom ended starting in 1900 when a group of prostitutes began to ride them and solicit customers on their rides about town. Soon women riding bikes were assumed to be prostitutes and other women stopped riding.

VnMZ TIL that Joseph Colombo, who started the Italian-American Civil Rights League to protest the depiction of Italians as Mafia in entertainment, was the head of the Colombo Crime Family.
wLrmW TIL that although it's called the "San Francisco Bay Area", the city of San Francisco isn't even the biggest city in that area. San Jose, its neighbor to the South, is more populous and nearly 4 TIMES larger in area.
b6JBZ TIL Frances Bean Cobain (daughter of Kurt Cobain) filed for divorce from her 1st husband, Isaiah Silva, in 2016 after less than 2 years of marriage. They ended up fighting for custody of Kurt's guitar played during his MTV Unplugged performance in November 1993. The court awarded it to Silva.
XEabE TIL Johannes Kepler, an accomplished scientist, had written a science fiction novel The Dream. As a result, his mother had to face trial for practicing witchcraft. He tried to scientifically disprove 49 points of disgrace held up against his mother. She was arrested, 5 years into the ordeal.
WkEAo TIL that Prince William and Prince Harry pulled a prank on their grandmother the Queen, by changing her voicemail answering message to say, "Hey wassup! This is Liz. Sorry I'm away from the throne. For a hotline to Philip, press one. For Charles, press two. And for the corgis, press three."