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TIL the Nazi SS threatened to shoot the Archbishop of Greece for openly protesting againt the deportation of Jews. He reminded them that, “according to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our prelates are hung and not shot. Please respect our traditions!”

wLd6o TIL about “concussionist" R.G. Dyrenforth, hired by the U.S. government in 1891 to make it rain over Texas by blasting water from the skies with explosives. Despite being "certain that rain can be caused by explosion in mid-air," he just managed to catch all manner of things on fire with his kites.
E1aQP TIL The Kuleshov effect is a film editing (montage) effect demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.
m1P7p TIL that Peter Gabriel's only US #1 single ("Sledgehammer") knocked his former band Genesis' only US #1 single ("Invisible Touch") off the top of the charts in 1986.
Y7v4x Today I learned about a place in New Zealand called TaumatawhakatangihangaKōauauoTamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu -This place holds the record for having the longest name of a place in the world, with a whopping 85 characters.
XEnNr TIL about a Hungarian soldier named Paul Kern who stayed awake for 40 years after being shot in the head during World War I. Doctors encountering his condition were always skeptical, but Kern traveled far and wide, allowing anyone who wanted to examine him to do so. He died in 1955.