› added 8 years ago

5020

TIL The Beatles approached Stanley Kubrick to direct a LOTR movie starring themselves. Tolkien killed the project as a result of his hate for The Beatles. A hate developed after moving 3 doors down from The Beatles in 1964, who irked him with the “indescribable” noise from their practice sessions.

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epjyD TIL that a TV show accidentally filmed a murder. During a 1975 ITV documentary on young runaways in London, a boy died. The camera crew realized that it had filmed many of those involved. The documentary doubled in length to discuss the case. Three people received life sentences for the murder.
grL94 TIL the word "alabaster" does not involve the Greek root word "aster" (star) like I assumed, but is named because the material was used to create vessels that depicted the Egyptian goddess "Bast" and were found in the region called "Alabastron".
KOWE9 TIL about Formula E, which is similar to F1 but includes real life speed boost zones akin to Mario Kart, and provides social-media powered speed boosts to drivers
0wvV5 TIL in 2009 a Russian robber broke into a hair salon, was beaten by its black-belt owner and kept as a sex slave for three days while being fed only Viagra.
wJ4P TIL in 2012 Germany agreed to provide compensation to a new category of Nazi victims — 80,000 Jews who fled ahead of the advancing German army and eventually resettled in the former Soviet Union. As of 2012, Germany has paid $89 billion in compensation overall for Nazi crimes since 1952.