› added 5 years ago

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TIL in 1638, Pope Urban VIII commissioned the song Miserere from Allegri based on Psalm 51 & forbade transcriptions from being made. In 1770, Mozart at age 14 copied it from memory under threat of excommunication. Word got back to the Pope, who summoned Mozart & awarded him a Papal Knighthood.

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5Vn8n TIL that the "red lips" film poster for The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a spoof of the Jaws movie poster, which had been released that same year
YBPB TIL that Aerogel, also known as frozen smoke, is the world’s lowest density solid, clocking in anywhere from 95-99% air. If you hold a piece in your hand, it is almost impossible to feel or see, but if you poke it, it is like styrofoam. Also, it can support up to 4,000 times its own weight.
RQYw TIL in 1812 Charles Barnard, a captain of an American sealer ship, rescued marooned British sailors from the Falkland Islands despite the 2 countries being at war. While he searched for provisions, the British sailors stole his ship and he himself was marooned for 18 months.
7r55M TIL the phrase "splice the mainbrace" was originally an order given on naval vessels describing a tedious and critically important emergency repair, but eventually it became a euphemistic order for giving an extra serving of grog or rum to sailors.
BLLy TIL that the first album release from Priority Records was by ‘The California Raisins’ a fictional rhythm and blues group made up of anthropomorphized raisins singing hit songs like 'I Heard It Through The Grape Vine’ in order to sell more raisins. The second was Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A.