› added 8 years ago

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TIL a man named Painless Parker created the Parker Dental Circus, a traveling medicine show with his dental chair on a horse-drawn wagon. He charged 50 cents for each extraction and promised that if it hurt, he would pay the patient $5.

8aXDa TIL of Louis de Bourbon, Count of Soissons who after betraying Louis XIII and succesfully beat his army at the Battle of La Marfée, accidentally killed himself when lifting the visor of his helmet with his pistol after the battle was over
M7omA TIL Disney's "Susie the little blue coupe" (the film that would directly inspire the design philosophy of Pixar's "Cars") is in the public domain due to failure of copyright renewal. The soundtrack however remains in copyright.
gM8D4 TIL the Vatican once dispatched a church father to personally verify if Shirley Temple was a 30-year-old dwarf with false teeth in a wig.
p8wbb TIL before fame, Bruce Springsteen acquired his nickname "The Boss" because he took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay from their club gigs and distributing it amongst his bandmates. Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses, but has tacitly accepted it.
ZLVQ TIL US Navy SEAL Mike Thornton earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam for saving the life of Thomas Norris, another SEAL, who would also later receive the Medal of Honor for a previous rescue mission, making it the first time in a century where a MOH recipient saved the life of another MOH recipient.