› added 6 years ago

87

TIL separate bathrooms for women emerged only in the late 1800s, under the assumption that women were inherently weaker and therefore needed protective, home-like havens in their workplace.

mxyo TIL that the thieves that committed the great train robbery played Monopoly after the crime - with real money.
m15QE TIL that the first recorded labour strike took place in Ancient Egypt, in 1170 BCE, by tomb workers. After the grain supply was repeatedly late, workers stopped working and demanded prompt pay. Because it was the first of its kind, management did not know how to react, and largely caved to demands.
E19Gp TIL that on Sunday, February 7, 1932, US Adm. Harry E. Yarnell launched a successful surprise "attack" against Pearl Harbor using two aircraft carriers in a naval exercise. He "destroyed" every ship in port and every airfield nearby. The US made no effort to safeguard Hawaii from aircraft attack
Z84VQ TIL of an early-twentieth-century novelist named Robert Walser who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, committed to a sanatorium and largely forgotten until it was discovered that the tiny, supposedly schizophrenia-induced markings on scraps of paper were actually a novel deciphered in the 1970's
8epGb TIL the Big Gulp was invented in 1976, when Coca-Cola suggested that 7-11 use 32 oz. cups, much larger than 20 oz. cups being used by McDonalds at the time. The first regional order of 500 Big Gulp cups sold out in a week, eventually forcing automakers to make cupholders bigger as popularity grew.