› added 6 years ago

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TIL that two brothers from a set of triplets fooled a Russian prison when one brother swapped places with the other to give him a brief taste of freedom. Rather than returning, the freed brother ran off with his brother's girlfriend. It took years for the authorities to realize they had been duped.

nWw5B TIL I learned that Marvin Gaye was killed by his father on April 1st, 1984 due to a dispute over a misplaced insurance policy letter. His death was thought to be a rumor due to it being April Fool's and was initially dismissed by friends and fans. It was one day before his 45th birthday.
yQ6Wl TIL of Imber. A village in the UK that has existed since before Roman times, has written records dating to 967AD, is in the doomsday book, and that had every single resident evicted by the army in the 1920's, so they could practice urban warfare there.
0wkp5 TIL directors Spike Jonze and Jordan Peele have both agreed the fan theory setting "Being John Malkovich" and "Get Out" in the same universe is compelling, and Peele has expressed interest in creating a third film that unites both films in one canon.
neo07 TIL that Ferdinand Porsche stole several design elements of Volkswagen Beetle from an Austrian engineer named Hans Ledwinka of Tatra, a Czech car company. Tatra took legal action, but Hitler invaded Austria, seized its factory, and banned the car. The case was settled by VW after the war.
YpePx TIL about Ralph Lauren, the billionaire fashion mogul. His last name was Lifshitz but he changed it to Lauren when he was 16 because it had the word 'shit' in it and other children used to make fun of him.