› added 11 years ago

88

TIL in 1996, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan was brought to a disciplinary hearing for saying he played better with his bad hand than his opponent did with his good hand. Using his bad hand, he won 3 straight games against a world-ranked player. The charges were dropped.

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b9NOp TIL that Ben Franklin was involved in the first fraternal hazing death in America. In 1737 a man died after flaming liquid was thrown on him in a mock initiation at the Philadelphia Masonic Temple. Franklin, a Freemason, was a witness, and the perpetrator was found guilty of manslaughter and branded
4k10N TIL General James Wilkinson was a high-ranking U.S. officer during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. Years after his death, historians in Spain uncovered proof he had been a Spanish spy—prompting Teddy Roosevelt to say, “In all our history, there is no more despicable character.”
4XD55 TIL for his PhD thesis, Ilya Bobvroskiy took a helicopter to a remote Russian bear infested ravine, rappelled down. Found fossils from the edicarian, & analysed cholesterol preserved in the ancient rocks. Science named his work amongst the top 10 breakthroughs of 2018.
9wg7B TIL that when Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, Pablo Picasso was a suspect.
JYbpv TIL the second version of the confederate flag was almost entirely white to symbolize the "Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race". The design was changed after confederate soldiers complained that it looked too much like the white flag of defeat.