› added 10 years ago

80

TIL than in 1881 a woman got away with murdering a man who broke off their engagement by using the “hysteria defense,” i.e., a doctor told the jury that “Any virtuous woman when deprived of her virtue would go mad, undoubtedly.” The jury acquitted her in 20 minutes.

dBpj TIL the hoverboard was invented for real in April 2016. Powered by six compact jet engines totaling 1000 HP (equivalent to four automobile engines), and stabilized with Segway-like algorithmic balancing, it has a flight time of 10 minutes using a camelbak filled with jet fuel.
ELGW TIL that because of the gay character in 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast,” Malaysia didn’t allow children under 13 to see it without being accompanied by an adult; Russia didn’t allow children under 16 without an adult; and Kuwait effectively banned it entirely.
Qak9 TIL that Gary James Paulsen (“Hatchet” author) watched his mother beat a molester to death, hunted for sustenance while a teen, was molested by his parents servant, ran away and joined a carnival at 14, witnessed a plane crash/passengers get attacked by sharks, and completed the 1,150 mile Iditarod
o15E TIL, without permission, test pilot Tex Johnson did a barrel roll in a prototype 707 during a first look at a an air show with a lot of potential customers in attendance. When his boss called him into his office and said “What the hell were you doing?”, he replied “Selling Airplanes.”.
wolyM TIL Thomas Edison created the first ever film studio, "The black maria", which could rotate so that it could always catch the best lighting. There, they shot "The kiss" (1898) which contained the first on-screen kiss, which caused a demand for the first ever film industry censorship.