› added 4 years ago

70

TIL from 1897-1907 the US Department of Labor commissioned several reports on the condition of Blacks in America, culminating in a damning report by W.E.B. Du Bois on the exploitation of Blacks in Alabama. Rather than publish the report, the DOL destroyed all copies and halted the studies.

Read more dol.gov

via reddit.com

R79b1 TIL in 1941 California built a prison for violent inmates where cells were unlocked and there was only a short barbed-wire fence around it
pYZ7b TIL a four-year-old murder was solved when detectives noticed a gang member's tattoo that depicted the entire crime scene
J1D0Q TIL that Native Americans hunted bison by forcing the herd to run off a cliff.
xvrk TIL that between 50-100 Americans currently use a plutonium-powered pacemaker. They are to be returned to Los Alamos upon the owner’s death.
GYQOj TIL In 1920, the New York Times published an editorial titled "A Severe Strain on Credulity," mocking scientist Robert Goddard's contention that a rocket could conceivably leave the atmosphere and even reach the moon. They later printed a retraction, the day after the launch of Apollo 11.