› added 1 year ago

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TIL at the 1977 South African F1 Grand Prix, driver Tom Pryce struck a 19 year old race marshal at 170mph who had crossed the track without permission to deal with a broken down car. The fire extinguisher carried by the marshal struck Pryce in the head, also killing him instantly.

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lmeK TIL Thomas Hicks ran the 1904 Olympic marathon while drinking a mix of strychnine, egg whites and brandy which made him hallucinate and become sick. His trainers had to carry him over the finish line but he was still declared the winner, with the slowest gold medal time in Olympic marathon history.
R71p4 TIL Anne Frank wrote about the changes her body was going through in her diary, but her dad edited those parts out of the published manuscript.
wLAPP TIL domestic pigs will quickly adapt to living in the wild if set free. They become extremely aggressive, and their physiology will change and resemble that of feral swine (bristly hair, tusks, increased muscle mass) within a matter of months.
6Egj8 TIL that those "baby on board" signs hanging in car windows serve a purpose of alerting first responders that there is a person in the vehicle that's unable to unbuckle themselves in the event of an accident
mxQyM TIL because pendulum clocks are unreliable at sea, the first attempt at a marine chronometer was undertaken in 1673 utilizing a balance wheel and spring for regulation instead of a pendulum. This opened the way for the first modern pocket watches and wristwatches.