› added 6 years ago

151

TIL that in 1906, The Daily Mail hired novelist William Le Queux to write a story of the most likely path for a hypothetical German invasion of England. When that path went mostly through areas with low 'Daily Mail' readership, they ordered it rewritten to more directly impact their existing readers

Read more quadrant.org.au

via reddit.com

OLbL TIL Actor Crispin Glover (from Back to The Future) was in character from an upcoming movie during an bizarre interview with Letterman in 1987 because of this everyone thought he was crazy for years to come, because the movie wasn’t released until 1991.
woEw7 TIL about Pole Sitting Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly was the most famous of the sitters.
4Q7b TIL Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted by Pixar late into production, almost killing the film.
oBJQ7 TIL that the creator of Jaws was so regretful of the anti-shark attitudes and hysteria resulting from his work that he later went on to be an outspoken advocate for marine conservation and an activist for the protection of sharks
a8LNJ TIL about Nushawn Williams, a New York City man who, despite knowing he was HIV positive, claimed to have had unprotected sex with 200-300 women and spread the virus to at least 16 people. He was sentenced in 1999 to 4–12 years in prison, but has remained in involuntary civil commitment since 2010.