› added 9 months ago

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TIL: Marlon Brando once stated that Charlie Chaplin was "probably the most sadistic man" he ever met after working with him on the 1967 movie A Countess from Hong Kong, further stating he "was an egotistical tyrant and a penny-pincher."

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OLA4 TIL that a high school teacher successfully indoctrinated his class into a pseudo-fascist movement to show how Nazi idealism spread across Germany during WWII.
1alj4 TIL about the heroism of Teddy Sheean, of the Australian navy. During WW2, his ship was torpedoed, and Japanese planes shot at survivors in the sea. Sheean strapped himself to an antiaircraft gun on the sinking ship and fired at the planes, downing at least one. He was still firing as he drowned.
xV7GB TIL English sweating sickness, which caused profuse sweating and sometimes led to a rapid death, remains a mystery more than five centuries later. After raging for more than 60 years, the last major outbreak of the disease in England was recorded in 1551. Then the "English sweat" simply vanished.
VBGRB TIL the soft drink 7 Up initially contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug. It was a key selling point until 1948 when the FDA banned lithium from beer and drinks. 7 Up was originally called 7 Up Lithiated Lemon Soda.
d97r TIL that the trip to Mars would take only 39 days using a new type of nuke plasma rocket engine.