› added 4 years ago

95

TIL that Anne Whitney, an American sculptor, won the blind contest to create a statue of Charles Sumner in Boston Public Garden in 1875. When they found out that she was a woman they declared it "inappropriate" for her to have sculpted a man and gave the commission to Thomas Ball instead.

Read more exhibits.tufts.edu

via reddit.com

akYM TIL that J.R.R. Tolkien once started to write sequel to The Lord of the Rings entitled The New Shadow, but stopped only 30 pages in.
a0r9 TIL the Germans had a “curved barrel device” to shoot around corners
nNlG TIL China has 513 million internet users, but it’s only 38% of their population.
gME1W TIL that Soul Asylum’s "Runaway Train" helped find 25 missing children featured in the music video, but also led to a girl being returned to a "bad home situation" and a fireman discovering his daughter was killed by her mother and buried in the mother's backyard.
D1x7P TIL that Linus Torvalds, Creator of Linux of said that “Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.”