› added 10 years ago

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TIL that when he was 7, Vin Diesel and some friends broke into a New York theater with intentions to vandalize it. Instead of calling the police, the theater’s artistic director handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. This became Diesel’s first acting role.

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VMM6Z TIL that the words celadon, gargantuan, and malapropism, as well as many others are actually characters from stories that later entered common language.
BgxwL TIL about ‘Whipping Tom’, the pseudonym for two different sexual predators, who attacked and spanked dozens of women in Stuart London. They generated so much concern that many women began to arm themselves and male vigilantes crossdressed in an attempted to apprehend them.
xVjl1 TIL Quebec was founded by request of the Native Wabanaki, who figured French guns and ships between them and their enemies would ensure survival. The Wabanaki are one of the few natives who still live on their native lands and speak their native languages as a result. (added sources in comments)
pNnN TIL Bishop Rock is a tiny island 4 miles off the coast of Cornwall, and its single lighthouse makes it the “world’s smallest island with a building on it”
wLQEP TIL Silver foxes were selectively bred for domestication in the 1950's in order to study evolution. As with dogs, the ears started to droop as physical manifestation of docility, and some even started vocalizing barks as like dogs