› added 5 years ago

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TIL that only 55 people finished the first New York City Marathon (held in 1970), yet more than 52,000 runners finished the 2018 New York City Marathon: an increase of more than 94,000%.

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via reddit.com

VMJg0 TIL The tendency to see Van Gogh's mental illness in his work began as a rebuke by critics who hated it, at a time when mental illness was highly stigmatized. He was actually only seriously ill in the final 2 years of his life.
D1bbJ TIL that word boondock come from Tagalog bundok ‘mountain.’ American soldiers stationed in the Philippines adopted the word in the early 1900s, shifting the meaning to refer to "an isolated or wild region."
rNRgW TIL about facial scarification practice that was common in Nigeria to mark children's identity, symbolise reincarnation, protection or beauty.
1xeD TIL Tom Green won 5 Raspberry Awards for “Freddy Got Fingered” in 2002. He showed up in a white Cadillac, rolled out his own red carpet, and had to be dragged off stage because he wouldn’t stop play a harmonica.
ejW5 TIL that “muskeg”, very damp soil, is why northern Ontario is almost uninhabited. Sometimes 100 feet deep or more, unless completely cleared it freezes and buckles construction in winter, and swallows anything left (locomotives, construction equipment, moose, etc.) when it thaws in the spring.