› added 4 years ago

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TIL that in 1906, a man in Seattle was sentenced to one minute in jail for drunkenness and disorder. The original sentence was 30 days, but after an appeal and six months of litigation, it was shortened to one minute. He was kept in jail until the second hand of the jailer’s watch completed a circle

rNBBw TIL of the intense fued between James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul", and Joe Tex. It got so bad Brown turned up to a club they were performing at and started a fight where 7 people were shot. Afterwards, a man gave "each one of the injured a hundred dollars apiece not to carry it no further".
bKw0 TIL an Oregon woman started a 50,000 acre wildfire who later told authorities that her “firefighter friends were bored and needed work.”
1NLV TIL “Radium Girls” painted clock dials with self luminous paint, and would then apply the same paint to their teeth, nails and skin to give a glowing appearance. Their remains are still highly radioactive and glow to this day due to the 1600 year half life of Radium.
8aw9Z TIL the word "scotch" in hopscotch and butterscotch comes from the old French word "escocher", meaning to cut. In hopscotch we hop over "cuts" in the ground (it is an ancient game); butterscotch is a sheet of hard butter candy "scotched" into smaller pieces; it also led to the word "scratch"
NJyM TIL: Lucille Ball funded the pilot of Star Trek against the wishes of her board of directors. If not for her, there would be no Star Trek.