› added 5 years ago

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TIL of James Scott. A prisoner who fought in 7 nationally televised boxing matches from behind bars. He rose to be the No.2 contender in the WBA rankings, defeating the No.1 along the way. The WBA stripped his ranking after becoming concerned that a prison inmate might actually win the world title.

95dG TIL that Google made a detailed, interactive map of the galaxy in HTML5, just to see if they could.
v1Zr4 TIL that a crowd of 500 Northern civilians tried to watch the First Battle of Bull Run. Among them was a US congressman. He was close enough to the battle that, during the Union retreat, he was captured by Confederate infantry. Upon his release, he wrote a best-selling book about his imprisonment.
vVJB TIL that although the United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, having no longitudinal bearings, need not keep to a time zone, as a matter of practicality they operate on New Zealand clocks since resupply flights originate in Christchurch, on the South Island.
mxWQE TIL of Sir Alexander Cuming, a Scottish nobleman who traveled to the southeast US based off a dream of his wife. He became chief of the Cherokee Nation, defrauded several colonists, and attempted to turn South Carolina into a new Jewish homeland. He later became an alchemist and died in a poorhouse
98ZB TIL That in 2011 in the US there were 1694 murders using knives, 496 murders with blunt object, 726 using bare hands and feet, and just 323 murders using rifles (including the ‘assault’ variety)