› added 7 months ago

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TIL in early 2000 when Eminem submitted The Marshall Mathers LP to label boss Jimmy Iovine, he was unsatisfied & said that it didn't have a hit single. In direct response to this, Em created the album's second single "The Way I Am" with the track's piano rhythm even coming to him on the plane home.

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4Xvja TIL that in early Vietnam, after a Chinese general assassinated a man suspected of creating a revolt, the mans wife and her sister created and headed an army of 80,000 to take back Vietnam from the Han Dynasty. They then established an independent Vietnam for 3 years as 2 ruling Queens.
BrkYd TIL that in the film Jaws, the shark was malfunctioning. Spielberg had to use certain POV shots and John William's score to increase the tension, and other cues (ie barrels, dorsal fins, etc) to note the shark's presence. This is a highly influential filmmaking choice and Jaws is an extreme success.
7rgN7 TIL Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf & a 15% stake in The Lord of the Rings trilogy because he 'never understood the script'. Had he accepted he'd have made $450 million for the role.
Z8nRv TIL that when the US faced civil war, Russia was the most supportive nation to the Union, sending its Pacific and Atlantic fleets to US ports, as well as many Russian officers to volunteer, serving up to the rank of Brigadier General.
M7XJ0 TIL the very first draft of Star Wars: A New Hope was a two-page outline called "The Journal of the Whills". It would be about the adventures of Mace Windy, a "Jedi-Bendu" from Planet Ophuchi, and his "padawaan learner", a 16-year-old boy called C.J. Thorpe.