› added 11 years ago

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TIL that Jack Johnson (the first ever African American heavyweight boxing champion) was pulled over for a $50 speeding ticket, but he gave the officer $100 telling him to keep the change as he was going to make the return trip at the same speed.

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kEQd TIL Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English channel in 1926, beating the previous time record by nearly two hours. The first person to greet Ederle as she came ashore on Kingsdown beach was a British immigration officer who requested to see her passport.
9EMX TIL the man who tried to stop John Wilkes Booth from killing Lincoln, Henry Rathbone, went all “Shining” on his family and killed his wife and attempted to kill his children in a fit of rage.
d8eLK TIL of William Harrison, whose accused murderers were executed in 1661, only for Harrison to reappear in 1662, showing he was never actually dead. The events lead to the end of murder convictions without a body for 250 years in the UK.
xVNaB TIL that a "Masterpiece" isn't necessarily an artists best ever work. It has it's origin in a master craftsman's show piece for acceptance into a guild, later adopted by apprentice artists as their show piece for their Masters Degree, allowing them to study further - and get better at their craft.
wLaVM TIL that despite Australia being known for deadly venomous variants of spiders such as the Funnelweb and Redback; nobody has died from a spider bite in the entire country since 1981; largely thanks to antivenoms