› added 7 years ago

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TIL Andreas Grassl, a german man found in England in 2005, remained unidentified for four months due to his refusal to speak, communicating instead through drawing and playing the piano. This mysterious story spawned media attention and speculation all across the world, dubbing him as the Piano Man

Read more theguardian.com

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W7gbY TIL that the character Pai Mei wasn't created by Quentin Tarantino for the Kill Bill movies; he's a pre-existing figure in Chinese folklore, allegedly based on a real Shaolin elder from the 17th century.
R7Ly6 TIL shipping magnate Malcom McLean built the high speed SL-7 cargo ships only to see the '73 Oil Crisis increase fuel costs tenfold, forcing them from service. Next he bet the fate of his company on the extremely fuel efficient Jumbo Econships, only to see oil prices crash. US Lines went bankrupt.
d84j8 TIL a Melbourne woman posted a photo on Facebook of a "creep" she claimed was taking photos of her children in a shopping centre, and it was shared thousands of times. The man had actually taken a selfie at a Star Wars store display set up for people to take selfies
NMRb TIL the Taj Mahal was covered with a huge scaffold during WW2 to make it look like a stockpile of Bamboo and misguide any enemy bombers. (It was also disguised again in 1971!)
5YgMr TIL that Walt Disney wanted to add a scene to Bambi showing the burned corpse of the hunter who shot Bambi's mother.