› added 1 year ago

198

TIL that Country Music legend Tex Ritter is the father of John Ritter

Read more texashistory.unt.edu

via reddit.com

R7Y96 TIL of the Zong Massacre. In 1781, a British slave ship threw 130 chained African slaves overboard and claimed compensation under the ship's insurance. They falsely blamed the act on water shortage and lost their case.
Mele0 TIL about Tom Sachs. An autistic NYC-based sculptor who, when needing money, would use his art tools and scraps to make crude improvised firearms in his studio to sell in the NYPD Buyback programs for up to $300 apiece.
gM5BW TIL that square academic caps are called mortarboards, because it looks similar to the mortarboard used by brickmasons to hold mortar
e01L4 TIL of Labi Siffre. Dr. Dre wanted to sample his 1970s song "I got the..." for Eminem's "My Name Is" but Siffre, openly gay, initially refused, demanding sexist and homophobic lyrics be removed. Dre and Eminem made changes and the song became a massive hit.
yQROw TIL in 2018, an electrical engineer on board the Bellingshausen Research station in Antartica stabbed a fellow coworker in the chest multiple times because the colleague had been giving away the endings of books available in the research station’s library.