› added 5 years ago

528

TIL in 1896 a temporary, one-day city was named in Texas called Crush, where two locomotives were to be smashed head-on for purposes of spectacle. It was, for a few hours, the 2nd largest city in TX with 40k attendees. The collision caused engine boilers to explode, resulting in death and injuries.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

eG6n TIL Black US servicemen on duty in Australia during WWII were treated so poorly by their white superiors that they rioted and are said to have used 30,000 rounds of machine gun ammo firing at the tents of their white superiors.
neJ87 TIL: Marvel owned the rights to the name Hulk Hogan from '84-'04. For each match Hogan wrestled, Marvel was paid $100. Marvel also made royalties on merch and every project involving his name. When he dropped "Hulk" and started going by "Hollywood" Hogan in '96, he was able to avoid paying the fees.
wgXJ TIL: In 1930, Babe Ruth signed a contract for a record breaking $80,000. He was asked by a reporter what he thought of his yearly salary being more than President Hoover’s $75,000. His response: “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.”
MMDm TIL America has only won the World Baseball Cup 4 times, Cuba has won it 25 times and Britain once.
YEAA TIL that when an Asian giant hornet, a gigantic wasp that preys on bees, enters the nest of Japanese honeybees, the bees will gather around it and form a ball that encloses it, causing it to overheat and die.