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TIL Richard Nixon once admitted he wanted to become a rapper. The confession was rediscovered by a Washington Post reporter in 1997 while listening to one of the presidential recordings.

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BrKr TIL Russell Crowe was unhappy with the screenplay of Gladiator. The famous line “In this life or the next, I will have my vengeance” he initially refused to say, telling writer ”Your lines are garbage but I’m the greatest actor in the world and I can make even garbage sound good”.
Aoa4 TIL an inmate confronted Al Capone to get back when he cut in the line, Al asked him if he knows who he is and while holding scissors to Capone’s neck he replied: “Yeah, I know who you are, greaseball. And if you don’t get back to the end of that fucking line, I’m gonna know who you were.”
EgYld TIL the assumption that Harry Potter books have increased literacy among young people is "largely a folk legend." Research found no increase in reading among children and that children who read Harry Potter books were not more likely to go on to read outside the fantasy and mystery genres.
NXOJ TIL that Clerks was originally rated NC-17 solely because of its graphic dialogue, until Alan Dershowitz (Harvard Law Professor and major civil rights advocate) convinced the MPAA to lower it to Rated-R
R7gX4 TIL when a North Korean merchant vessel was attacked by Somali pirates, an American destroyer came to their aid. This event led to rare pro US statements from the North Korean media.