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TIL Elton John's moving song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was written as a tribute to a friend who talked him out of suicide and helped him come to terms with his homosexuality. The friend was musician Long John Baldry more well known nowadays for voicing Dr. Robotnik in the 90s Sonic cartoon.

0LAv TIL that an Oxford University genetic study found that the English are actually French and German, and that the Welsh are the true Britons
YLDG TIL the original Super Mario Bros 2 game was too hard and unpopular overseas, so Nintendo redeveloped an existing Japanese game (Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic) and turned it into what we know as Super Mario Bros 2, hence the weird, new characters and game play.
78OgX TIL The first man to finish the 1904 Olympic marathon rode in a car half the race. The actual winner had to be carried across the finish line after his coaches gave him a mix of brandy, eggs and strychnine. 4th place stole 2 peaches from a spectator, ate rotten apples from an orchard and took a nap.
LeYP TIL that Richard Harris, the first actor to play Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series did not originally want to play the character due to his poor health, but was encouraged to by his 11-year-old granddaughter when she threatened never to speak to him again if he did not.
vPMNL TIL Atlantis-believer Graham Hancock gave a TEDx talk in 2013 where he openly claimed to have been “pretty much permanently stoned” for 24 years. He credits his consumption of ayahuasca with helping him get off cannabis.