› added 8 months ago

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TIL in 1945, 2 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, the Boston Red Sox held a sham "tryout" for him and other black players. Red Sox management shouted racial slurs from the stands and humiliated the players. The Red Sox would eventually be the last MLB team to racially integrate.

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W7XkN TIL that Sojourner Truth, famous for her escape from slavery and her work as an abolitionist, was actually from New York state, and spoke Dutch as her first language.
0oDM TIL: Jean-Claude Van Damme’s epic Volvo split commercial was done in one shot… without practice.
x9Pk TIL the reason peanut butter doesn’t go bad is its aridity; with a moisture content of about 2%, it doesn’t contain enough water to support bacterial and fungal growth.
pYwAZ TIL that during WWI, conductor Karl Muck, a German-born Swiss citizen and conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was interned as an enemy alien for more than a year and deported. He had been falsely accused of refusing to play the National Anthem before a concert.
p8jXp TIL in 1979 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison planted 1008 plastic flamingos across campus. Ever since, Madison has embraced plastic flamingos; they are their soccer team's mascot and are even the city's official bird.