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TIL the actual Maria Von Trapp had a cameo in The Sound of Music

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GNJ TIL the ancient Roman empress Valeria Messalina liked to work on the side as a prostitute, and won a competition with other prostitutes to see who could take more men.
R7Eda TIL of George 'Rube' Waddell, a Major League pitcher who won 193 games, had a career ERA of 2.16, toured in a traveling vaudeville show, saved a woman from drowning, was bitten by a lion, wrestled alligators for fun and would leave the field during a game to chase fire trucks.
awAl0 TIL That according to scientists the South China Tiger is "functionally extinct" as one has not been spotted in the wild for over 25 Years, however a banker known as Stuart Bray has 19 of them held in captivity at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa.
9wNVB TIL That in 2007 David Letterman became so obsessed with the Michael Martin Murphey song "Wildfire", discussing and dissecting the lyrics with Paul Schaffer among other things, that it culminated in the then 62 year old Murphey being invited to perform the song on "Late Night".
v1ggD TIL that some bacteria can move twice as fast as a cheetah in terms of body length per second and have biological motors that can rotate up to 17000 RPM.