› added 7 years ago

186

TIL that the civil rights song “Strange Fruit” made famous by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone was written by a white, Jewish, New York high school teacher who was a member of the Communist Party.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

69NNm TIL of Armand Gagné, a peasant boy who was adopted by Marie Antoinette. After her carriage almost ran over the 5-year-old, she became so delighted with his appearance that she took him with her. The boy did not want to go and wished to stay with his family but she forcibly adopted him anyway.
nexMP TIL that women now out number men by almost a 60% to 40% ratio for nearly all degrees in higher education, this is especially so in business and MBA programs.
RA97 TIL of John Leray, a French Mathematician who concealed his proficiency with differential equations to avoid working for the Nazis. While in a POW camp, he developed sheaves, sheaf cohomology, and spectral sequences which are important tools for modern Algebraic Geometry
wm07 TIL that since 1991 the percentage of Russia’s population that does not identify with any religion has dropped from 61% to 18%
lZ85 TIL UB40’s “Tyler” is about Gary Tyler, who was sentenced to death at age 17 for a murder he didn’t commit, and even though his trial was ruled “fundamentally unfair”, is still serving jail time to date