› added 2 months ago

26

TIL that during the 70s and 80s, dozens of fires were set off deliberately in Hoboken, which displaced thousands of mostly Hispanic residents and killed 56. Investigators suspected that they were started by landlords in arson for profit schemes in order to sell newly renovated apartments to yuppies.

Read more hobokenmuseum.org

via reddit.com

OxG4 TIL that Jesse Owens was the 10th child in a poor family. The day after his 5th birthday he developed a large fibrous bump on his chest. As they couldn’t afford a doctor, his mother used a sterilized kitchen knife to carve into his chest and remove a golf-ball sized growth.
MeN90 TIL that Sir James Dyson started his vacuum company in his 40’s when he had three young kids and was in debt by putting up his home as collateral on a loan and now owns 100% of his company and has a personal net worth of over 7 billion dollars!
NVp8 TIL there was a project that challenged people to make a “Earth Sandwich” by placing pieces of bread in antipodal fashion on the earth (completely opposite of each other on the planet) For the first one, a baguette was placed in Spain, and another in New Zealand.
Mw90 TIL in 2007, Stephanie Lenz posted a YouTube video of her children dancing to “Let’s Go Crazy.” Universal sent YouTube a takedown notice, claiming it violated copyright. The court ruled that copyright holders must consider fair use before issuing takedown notices for content posted on the internet.
6EPVw TIL That Bob Hawke is the only Australian prime minister with a world record and his world record is for drinking 2.5 pints of beer in under 11 seconds.