› added 4 days ago

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TIL that from 1867 to 1974, various US cities had ugly laws targeting disabled or visibly poor people. San Francisco’s 1867 law made it illegal for anyone diseased, maimed, mutilated, or deformed to appear in public unless for demonstrations showing their need for reformation.

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7rNmr TIL in November 1942, the Holy Cross Crusaders beat the Boston College Eagles. The Eagles had scheduled a presumptive victory party at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, but cancelled it after the loss. Therefore, they were absent when the club caught fire, killing 492 people.
6WkQ TIL: Marilyn Monroe was raised in foster care & later, admitted to 2 psychiatric hospitals. Her mother was unwed & mentally unstable when she gave birth. Her mother & both maternal grandparents were in mental institutions. To escape foster care, Marilyn married one of her neighbors when she was 16.
gLBb TIL The British Army considered (and attempted) training seagulls to poo on enemy submarines periscopes before realising that seagulls don’t fly that far out to sea.
Ypn4r TIL that a live coelacanth (fish) was discovered in 1938 off the east coast of South Africa, 66 million years after it was believed to have gone extinct.
nKar TIL that the author of FIGHT CLUB came up with the foundation of the novel after being beaten up on a camping trip when he complained to nearby campers about the noise of their radio. When he returned to work, nobody would acknowledge his injuries instead asking things like “How was your weekend?”