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TIL Arthur Blake competed for the Boston Athletic Association and it was after a 1000 yard race he said in jest "I'm too good for Boston, I ought to go over and run the Marathon, at Athens, in the Olympic Games". This led to him being noticed by a stockbroker, and sending Arthur to the 1896 Olympics

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YBEA TIL Samuel Jackson’s performance as Gator in Jungle Fever impressed The Jury of the Cannes Film Festival so much that they decided to create the Award for Best Supporting Actor in that year, honoring him with the award. Till date he’s the only actor to receive such honor.
R58V8 TIL The Guinness Book of World Records, was an idea conceived by British engineer Sir Hugh Beaver (the Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery) to solve trivia questions among bar patrons.
d8Klj TIL until modern times, when artificial lighting allowed us to stay awake longer, most people would go to bed around sunset. The actual time spent sleeping was split into two phases – known as first sleep and second sleep.
D1g5J TIL Sabrina Pasterski built a single engine airplane by the time she was 14 y/o, at 16 became the youngest person ever to fly their own plane; graduated MIT in 3 years with a 5.0 GPA and is now 24 at Harvard getting a PhD in high energy physics.
9YrN7 TIL how Spanish runner Iván Fernández Anaya intentionally lost a race. Kenyan runner and race leader Abel Mutai stopped 10-20 meters short of the finish line, thinking he had already won. Instead of passing him, Anaya stopped and told Mutai to keep running, thus allowing Mutai to win.