› added 5 years ago

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TIL Sylvester H. Roper invented what may have been the first motorcycle. He died when he fell off his invention while racing riders on normal bicycles. The cause of death was found to be heart failure, although it is unknown if the crash was the cause of it, or if his heart failed before the crash.

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edk6 TIL that Crassus, a Roman general and also one of the richest men in history, used to purchase buildings on fire for a very low price and then put the fires out with his trained army of 500 slaves and rebuild them. If the owners refused to sell their property, he would not engage in firefighting.
d8Jmj TIL that the average workweek for a manufacturing employee in the 1890s was 100 hours. The five day, 40-hour workweek didn't become standard until 1940 thanks to the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which required employers to pay overtime to anyone working more than 40 hours.
dGwB TIL that students at Oxford University are required to wear academic dress for all of their examinations - including a suit, gown, bowtie, and colour coded carnation. Students wear different gowns depending on their grades. Cambridge no longer has such dress for exams.
dnaj TIL that as of 2006, Asian drivers in America have the lowest rate of traffic fatalities of any ethnicity.
GLVQ TIL entrepreneur George F. Johnson pioneered 40 hour workweeks, paid industry-leading wages, sold homes to employees at a loss, built parks, pools, medical facilities, etc. and still turned a profit with his 10,000 employee company.