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TIL "Waltzing Matilda" is Australian slang for traveling on foot with a bundle of belongings. In the 1895 song an itinerant narrator takes a stray sheep for dinner, and after a pursuit by lawmen he drowns in a watering hole and becomes a ghost.

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p8JaN TIL that in the movie The Godfather, the reason the word 'mafia' is not mentioned a single time is because mafia boss Joe Colombo, along with Frank Sinatra, threatened the films production and would only back the filming if they could change the script to their liking.
4XWBN TIL of Nikolay Pirogov, a Russian doctor in the Crimean War. While Florence Nightingale revolutionized nursing in the British army, Pirogov founded the discipline of field surgery in the Russian camp. One of the first to use Ether as an anaesthetic, he also invented many other medical operations.
neOJr TIL that people in the Philippines say "Tao po" when knocking on someone's door. It translates to "I am a human being". It comes from the belief that evil entities cannot do human speech. "Tao po, hindi aswang" is the original phrase, meaning "I am a human, not a flesh eating monster"
JQyV TIL the Catholic Church did not persecute Copernicus and instead the Pope was so pleased with the theory he gave a gift
XEbEP Today I learned of guitarist Dave Mustaine who was fired from his band for drug abuse, alcoholism, and aggressive behavior. He went on to form his own band, Megadeth, which would go on to sell 25 million albums worldwide. The band that fired him? Metallica.