› added 7 years ago

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TIL 'Angel' by Sarah McLachlan (the song famously used for the ASPCA animal cruelty PSA's) is actually about the fatal overdose of Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.

J1rAQ TIL that Wilhelm Furtwängler, a leading German conductor, called Hitler a "hissing street pedlar" and an "enemy of the human race". He also refused to give the Nazi salute, wrote public letters denouncing antisemitism, and once got into a shouting match with Hitler over Nazi cultural policy.
KAeQ TIL a 9 year old boy ran away from home to fight in the Civil War. The army adopted him as their drummer boy, being too young to be a soldier. At age 11, he became the youngest noncommissioned officer in Army history, and decades later he retired as the last veteran of the civil war on active duty.
4kAwR TIL on freeways in foggy areas of California, a break in the shoulder line is used to notify drivers of an upcoming freeway exit
6Eb0Y TIL that in 2015, Martin Scorsese directed a 16-minute short film called “The Audition” that served as an advertisement for a Chinese casino. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, with a cameo appearance from Brad Pitt. The budget was $70 million.
g8l4 TIL Jack Ruby, the guy who killed Oswald on live TV, claimed that the JFK assassination “was an act of overthrowing the government” and that he had been injected with cancer cells in prison to silence him. By 1966, Ruby was dead from cancer in his liver, lungs and brain.