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TIL Don LaFontaine, the guy that did basically all the movie trailer voiceovers in the 90s/00s, got into it by accident and actually ran his own production company once. He got so busy and made so much money doing trailers he left a prestigious Paramount position to take up voiceovers full time.

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69NW8 TIL In 1987 Paul Tudor Jones believed the stock market to be overvalued so he took an very risky short position. On Oct 19, 1987 the market crashed hard in what's now known as Black Monday. While many were wiped out, Jones walked away with $100M. His trade became legendary on Wall Street.
gMxxb TIL that when quirky theatrical producer David Merrick got bad reviews for his 1961 musical, he found 7 random denizens of New York with names identical to those of 7 top theatre critics. He asked the civilians to talk ecstatically of the musical, then published an ad with their praises and names.
MeW5V TIL after the massive success of his #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know", Gotye stopped recording solo music, went back to his old band and hasn't released a song under the Gotye name ever since
rRjx1 TIL Indonesia put a nation wide stop on manat ray fishing after it was calculated that a single animal is worth an estimated US$1 million over its lifetime in tourism versus its value of $40-$500 when killed
GYbj7 TIL a robot named hitchBOT successfully hitchhiked across Canada but when he tried to repeat this feat in the US he was beaten to death and dismembered in Philadelphia