› added 7 years ago

163

TIL in 1928 women competed in the 800 Meters Olympics for the first time and it was reported by the media to be a complete disaster with women fainting and sobbing hysterically. Women were no longer allowed to compete until 1960. In reality, no one fainted and several beat the existing world record.

Read more runnersworld.com

via reddit.com

kmam TIL of an orca named Old Tom, who during the early 20th century spent almost four decades helping fishermen catch baleen whales off the coast of Australia. In return, Old Tom and his pod feasted on the lips and tongues of the whalers’ haul.
Ok71 TIL: The elementary school game, “Heads Up, Seven Up,” was a tool used by educators to determine students that were more likely to cheat. If you weren’t very good chances are you were more honest.
a8vkN TIL that, on 16 November, 1949, students in Ghent (Belgium) stormed the medieval castle, lowered the portcullis and threw fruit from the walls at the police to protest a new tax on beer. The event is still commemorated yearly by the city as the greatest student prank in its history.
BrlZD TIL Michael Jackson planned an ultimately-cancelled Las Vegas residency in 2005, and among one of the plans was a 50-foot MJ robot that would roam the Nevada desert visible to tourists entering from their airport and was meant to advertise his show
VBj8D TIL that "Edmond de Belamy," a portrait generated by AI, sold for $432,500 in 2018. It was created using an algorithm trained on 15,000 portraits from the 14th to 19th centuries, and the "artist" signed it with a mathematical formula.