Charles Lyne, a British filmmaker, raised $8486…

Charles Lyne, a British filmmaker, raised $8486 to force two people to watch a 10 hour 7 minute movie of paint drying. Those two people were employees of the BBFC, responsible for classifying movies, and the stunt was done to protest the BBFC’s power of censorship.

The British exclusively swam breaststroke…

The British exclusively swam breaststroke in competition until the 19th century. In 1844, a Native American came to London and won a competition swimming front crawl, a stroke never seen by the Western world, who then regarded it as “un-European”.