Post * GYdgE — Curious Curator

› added 4 years ago

94

TIL Boxing trainer Cus D'Amato was criticised for being a proponent for the peek-a-boo style of boxing; it was believed that an efficient attack could not be launched from it. He coached Mike Tyson later in his career in this exact style, who would become the youngest world heavyweight titleholder.

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N7Rk6 TIL that in 1859 a 2 hour telegraph conversation between Portland and Boston was able to be had without the use of any battery power. This was due to an aurora borealis generating enough electric current in the telegraph wires.

oBExY TIL when the FBI went undercover to expose the McDonald's Monopoly promotion scam that occurred between 1989-2001 they posed as a production company that interviewed supposed winners for TV commercials and named it Shamrock Productions with the byline “‘Cause you’re just lucky” printed on their van.

KYmEJ TIL that on April 1st 1989 Richard Branson flew an UFO-shaped balloon over London. It was realistic looking enough to have police and the military called and when it landed he had a dwarf in an ET costume step out of it to greet the onlookers.

R0e9 TIL an intact steamboat from 1856 was excavated in 1988 under 45 feet of dirt in a farmers field. Thousands of artifacts were excavated and preserved so well that some of the food was still edible.

4kmnR TIL about Christine Granville, a WW2 spy and Polish aristocrat - Winston Churchill would declare her as his favourite spy. She talks her way into service with M16, gets captured by Germans twice but escapes, and rescues her lover from execution by firing squad.