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TIL That Reverse Racing was a huge and very challenging motor sport in the Netherlands thanks to the sale of DAF cars that had no speed limit for driving in reverse. It was eventually stopped because those cars were becoming collectors items and the sport was considered too dangerous.

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90N6 TIL The term “grandfather clause” comes from the Jim Crow era. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and quizzes were designed to keep blacks from voting. But these standards barred poor whites from voting as well. The solution was to pass laws that allowed descendants of past voters to be “grandfathered in”.
e0w5k TIL That Buddy Bolden, the man credited with creating the musical innovations that would lead to the birth of Jazz, had acute schizophrenia and was permanently committed to a mental institution at age 30.
lpGK TIL that Neerja Bhanot, an Indian flight, attendant hid the passports of American passengers on board a hijacked flight to save them from the terrorits. She died while attempting to help passengers escape, shielding three children from a hail of bullets.
6E81X TIL: The Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin in 1875 was when 5000 barrels of whiskey ignited and flowed into the streets. 13 people died that day, but not from burns or smoke inhalation. They died from alcohol poisoning after trying to drink it all.
E19Xo TIL Charles Darwin's grandad, Erasmus Darwin, conceived a rocket engine in 1779. It used oxygen and hydrogen for fuel, the same fuels NASA's rockets use today, 200+ years later.