› added 9 months ago

35

TIL that NBC and Cablevision partnered to put live coverage of the 1992 Olympics on 3 Pay Per View channels. The "Olympics Triplecast" was a flop, and even triggered a lawsuit from NYC over false advertising.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

X0aK6 TIL That the only G-rated film to win Best Picture, Oliver!, won back-to-back (1968/1969) with the only X-rated (Now NC-17) film to win Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy (although the latter later became R-rated in a 1971 reissue)
dAdK TIL that in 1997 a 23 year old French man took the identity of 16 year old missing child from San Antonio, Texas. Which got him from Spain, to America, got him a U.S. citizenship and fooled the family that he was their child.
N7GN8 TIL Water is used in rice fields to prevent weeds. Rice doesn't actually need that much water, but since it can thrive in such conditions, whereas weeds cannot, it's a natural protection against them.
bmb4 TIL During Great Famine, Ottoman Sultan Khaleefah Abdul-Majid I declared his intention to send £10,000 (£800,000 today) to Irish farmers but Queen Victoria requested that the Sultan send only £1,000 because she had sent only £2,000 herself.
jNXjM TIL: Mister Rogers flatuated in public to make his wife laugh