› added 2 years ago

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TIL that Jim Crow wasn't a real person, but a caricature of a black stereotype played by a white man in blackface named T.D. Rice in the mid 1800s.

Read more education.nationalgeographic.org

via reddit.com

4Xlpg TIL musician Jim Croce and others died apparently due to a lazy pilot. An investigation showed the plane crashed after clipping a tree at the end of the runway. The pilot had not gained sufficient altitude to clear the tree and had not tried to avoid it, even though it was the only tree in the area.
neGab TIL that actress Tilda Swinton comes from an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the Middle Ages, & is one of only three British families that can trace their unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest
0v7j TIL Beethoven won a sight reading piano competition by turning his sheet music upside down, playing it, then improvising on one of its themes for thirty minutes. His opponent, Daniel Steibelt, never returned to challenge him again.
g7r7 TIL when Nintendo launched the SNES in America, some parents thought Nintendo was manipulating their children into purchasing an unnecessary system, and forced their kids to go to therapy sessions to show them how they were being “exploited”
wLvx1 TIL that some spider species mimic ants and kill them one by one when they least expect it. They have a fake ant head that splits open to reveal deadly weapons.