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TIL to explain why there are so many Japanese tourists flocking to see the northern lights, Alaskans made up a lie that Japanese couples have sex during the celestial show for good luck and a blessed child. This lie made it to the NY Times as fact and now it's a common (but false) folklore.

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QJKNd TIL producer Jeffrey Katzenberg revived The Walt Disney Studios by helming some of their biggest hits: The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. After he angled for a promotion he was forced out the company instead. Better than revenge, he founded DreamWorks Studios.
RxB1 TIL that sea otters have the densest fur of the animal kingdom with about 1,000,000 hairs per square inch.
x6g8g TIL in 1980, "Batman" producer Michael Uslan saw a photo of Jack Nicholson from "The Shining" in the newspaper and he started drawing on it. Uslan turned Nicholson’s famous “Here’s Johnny!” face into the Joker. Eight years later, Jack Nicholson was cast as The Joker.
R7gJQ TIL author Ed Abbey’s last wishes were for friends to transport his body in a pickup truck, foregoing undertakers, embalming or coffin in favor of an old sleeping bag and disregarding all laws concerning burial. He was laid to rest at a secret location in Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta desert.
0dyGA TIL William R. King was elected Franklin Pierce’s VP in 1852 and took the oath of office in Cuba due to tuberculosis. The only U.S. President or VP sworn in outside the country. Seattle’s King County was named in his honor until 2005. Now it is named King County after ML King Jr.