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TIL In 1964, a Swedish art gallery displayed 4 paintings by unknown artist Pierre Brassau. Every single art critic praised the ‘avant-garde’ work- except one, who said, ‘only an ape could have done this’. In fact it was all a hoax by a journalist and 'Brassau’ was actually a 4-year-old chimpanzee.

Read more hoaxes.org

via reddit.com

W7EwN TIL about the Aldgate Pump in London, a drinking fountain responsible for the death of hundreds when its water became contaminated by running through nearby graveyards.
oMW7 TIL in 2005, Wells Fargo started a program to educate black communities on building “generational wealth.” This program turned out to be a front for steering black people into predatory loans. WF paid damages, but not before 100s of houses were foreclosed.
m1GYv Today I learned about Mike Rowe, who in 2003 bought MikeRoweSoft.com, which caused a legal kerfuffle at first but the case was later settled in exchange for an XBOX & an all-expense paid trip for him to Microsoft HQ.
4kbla TIL in 1878 Vera Zasulich shot and seriously wounded Fyodor Trepov, the notoriously cruel governor of St Petersburg, after he ordered the flogging of a political prisoner who refused to remove his hat in his presence. A sympathetic judge and jury, and a skilled lawyer led to her getting acquitted
VeDk TIL in 1968, 20-year-old Barbara Mackle was kidnapped and buried alive inside a box containing an air pump, a lamp, water laced with sedatives, and food. Two plastic pipes provided her with outside air. Her kidnappers demanded and received a $500,000 ransom, and she was rescued three days later.