› added 2 months ago

5

TIL that before the Lindbergh Kidnapping in 1931, kidnapping was not a federal crime.

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eyaJ TIL Christopher Lee received Tolkien’s blessing to play the role of Gandalf, if a movie was ever released, but he played Saruman instead. He was also the only person involved with the Lord of the Rings films to have actually met Tolkien himself.
4XrMJ TIL, although the narrator begins Moby Dick with the famous opening, "Call me Ishmael," he is not stating his actual name. Rather he is briefly representing his back story with that of Ishmael from the book of Genesis, who was the cast-out son of Abraham born to a slave woman named Hagar.
p8KGO TIL In the mid-1800's Italy installed several British built 100-ton, 450mm black powder cannons on it's newest warships and in response the British bought several from the same manufacturer to install on the island of Malta. None of the guns were never used in any conflict and only two exist today.
DQQmP TIL that Hormel Foods keeps a file of hatemail they've received from American soldiers who had to eat the notorious food product while at war overseas
KYOBR TIL those with a genetic predisposition to paranoid schizophrenia can have symptoms of the disease induced through social and environmental stress