› added 7 months ago

25

TIL of the Portsmouth Sinfonia, an orchestra which was founded as an piece of comedic performance art, and so was open to anyone, regardless of musical training or proficency in their chosen instrument. They achieved a level of fame in the 1970s due to their recordings of popular classics.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

l7K9a TIL prior to 1972, the NFL did not calculate ties in a team's winning percentage. This is why the Spartans whose Win-Loss-Tie record was 6-1-4 (.857 win %) and the Bears at 6-1-6 (.857) went to the first NFL playoff game in 1932 and the Packers at 10-3-1 (.769) were not declared the NFL champions.
ANm0d TIL Elevators in NYC are legally required to have mirrors to help make sure that when you're entering, you can see anyone who may already be inside, so you don't get jumped or jacked by someone hiding out.
pYGGG TIL 52 Submarines and 3500 men are lost at sea from WW2. The navy doesnt declare them as sunk. They are still on patrol until found.
pYEpb TIL that in the 1980s, A&W launched their third-pounder burger to compete with the quarter-pounder. Confused about low sales, they conducted a study and found that around half the participants thought a third was smaller than a quarter. The burger was rebranded to the "papa burger."
ANAmd TIL That "tank banks" were set up across Great Britain during WWI to sell war bonds to buy more tanks. Cites competed to see who could sell the most bonds. The city who raised the most money was Glasgow at 16 million pounds.