› added 10 years ago

183

TIL when JRR Tolkien was asked for proof of Aryan descent in Germany, 1938, he replied, “If impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.”

Read more lettersofnote.com

via reddit.com

wLBDW TIL of Nedelin catastrophe. it was a launchpad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at Baikonur test range. explosion occurred when the second stage engine ignited accidentally, killing an unknown number (54-300) of personnel. the incident was covered up for 29 years, only to recognized in '89.
5Y7gD TIL that the original Halloween series was supposed to branch into a anthology series of horror films based on the night of Halloween. However due to the popularity of Michael Myers, it caused the third film which was based on a separate story, to fail at the box office.
a8GNA TIL that in his classic Western spoof Blazing Saddles (1974), Mel Brooks named his character Gov. LePetomane after that of a 19th century French stage act of he same name. Flatulist Joseph Pujols combined the French verb péter ("to fart") with "mane" (maniac), loosely translating to "thefartmaniac".
R47 TIL that Woody Allen’s son Ronan Farrow, a former child prodigy that now works as a Special Adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is disgusted by his dad marrying his sister. On Fathers Day 2012, he tweeted “Happy father’s day— or as they call it in my family, happy brother-in-law’s day”
7r7dP TIL : Bob Marley’s dad was white