› added 6 years ago

462

TIL many African-Americans have Irish surnames (e.g. Shaquille O'Neal) because Irish and Blacks lived side by side in the ghettos of 19th century America.

Read more nytimes.com

via reddit.com

VeR4 TIL - New York’s underground gay bars of the 1960’s (including the Stonewall Inn) were actually created and supported by the Mafia. It was illegal to be gay. The mob paid off local precincts to keep them from doing raids.
gnB4 TIL Annie Taylor was the first person to successfully descend Niagara Falls. She used a custom barrel stuffed with a mattress. She tested it by sending a cat over the falls. It survived and 2 days later she made the journey…on her 63rd birthday.
yybw TIL Hugh Hefner, scrapbooking every saturday since high school, has 2685 books completely archiving his life (world record). He says scrapbooking helped him reinvent his life to be more interesting.
P11XL TIL there was an epidemic of bubonic plague in San Francisco in the early 20th century, but denial by city and state government, and racism, caused people to focus on Chinatown residents
5YjaB TIL that the first science fiction convention was held over 100 years ago. Like many that came after it featured cosplay and panels and was a disastrous financial failure.