› added 8 years ago

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TIL that during Wagner’s lifetime, there was a widespread misconception that Wagner did not like applause at his operas. Frustrated by the lack of applause, Wagner himself cried “Bravo!” at the end of the second act of one of his operas, only to be hissed by other members of the audience.

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lowO1 TIL: 90% of U.S. Dollar bills contain traces of cocaine. In Washington, D.C., cocaine was found on 95% of the banknotes analyzed.
XL0R TIL that in World War II, German soldiers in American POW camps were sometimes allowed to leave without guards on the honor system, visiting nearby towns. Black American guards noted that German prisoners could visit segregated restaurants that they could not.
kJY7m TIL after being sent to Baltimore in his youth, Frederick Douglass learned the alphabet from the mistress of the house he moved into. When the mistress' husband put an end to the lessons, Douglass began trading bread to hungry neighborhood children who, in turn, helped him learn how to read & write
8aAbK TIL: You were more likely to get a job if you had smallpox scars in the 18th century. The scars proved that you already had smallpox and could not pass it on to your employers.
GBxj TIL Danny DeVito had his own brand of limoncello liqueur. And the lemon logo on the bottle was scratch-and-sniff.