› added 12 years ago

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TIL the cars that were given away by Oprah cost the recipients up to $7,000 due to the fact they were marketed as a prize instead of a gift (the latter is not taxed). Many had to forfeit their prize or sell it if they could not afford their “free car”.

VB4v0 TIL that in 2002, Australia won its first-ever Winter Olympic gold medal. It happened during the 1000m short track speed skating event, when over the course of the race all the competitors crashed, except for Australian Steven Bradbury.
VM9WG TIL Michaelangelo made fake ancient art. While in Florence, he was asked to make a statue look like an ancient work so it would be easier to sell. One piece was sold to Cardinal Raffaele Riario who upon finding out the piece was a fraud was so impressed that he invited Michaelangelo to Rome.
wLmr6 TIL that Leonard Nimoy (known for playing Spock in the Star Trek) published a book "I Am Not Spock" because people often called him Spock IRL, later he gave up and published another book "I Am Spock"
GYwA5 TIL in 1709, a colonial delegation brought four Indians to London—three Mohawks and a Mahican—and presented them in London as the “Four Indian Kings” of the Iroquois. The four kings met Queen Anne, dined with nobility, attended the theater, and toured the sites.
5W49 TIL of John Joe Gray, a fugitive who has been holed up with his family on a ranch in Texas since 2000. The sheriff has refused to attempt to arrest him for fear of “going up there and getting one of my young deputies killed.”