› added 12 years ago

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TIL a UCLA student went to Libya to fight with the rebels for, what he describes as, a ‘sick’ summer break

Read more dailymail.co.uk

via reddit.com

ljGa TIL The word for a black man in the Irish language literally means “blue man” because the term for black man was used to refer to the devil.
JYW9m TIL about John Howard Griffin, a journalist who in 1959 took anti-vitiligo drugs and spent 15 hours daily under an ultraviolet lamp to temporarily "become" a black man and travel through the South for six weeks.
loPrB TIL Abraham Lincoln authorized the creation of the Secret Service whose original purpose was to investigate counterfeit money which accounted for almost half of all US currency. He was shot the same day.
EVRw TIL that when Sylvester Stallone was pitching his new script in the 70’s, the studio refused to make it with Stallone in the lead. He turned down $300k with only $106 in his bank account until the studio caved and made it with him as the star. That film was Rocky.
78adZ TIL about Oliver Pollock, the man who created the US dollar sign (and went broke funding a war)