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TIL Richard Wagner fled to Zurich between 1849 and 1858, due to his involvement in the May uprising in Dresden. Zurich changed Wagner from being an employed conductor and composer to becoming a freelance composer and writer, which was a new concept

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MGJ0 TIL that the man who discovered the age of the Earth, Clair Patterson, was also responsible for one of our greatest public health interventions, the ban of lead additives in gasoline.
8eQlX TIL that during Prince's Super Bowl halftime show volunteers accidentally ran over and severed three power cables during the stage set up, so a member of the lighting crew stripped the ends and held the cables in place by hand for the entire 12 minute show in the rain.
6Egv8 TIL that in "Man on the Moon", Jim Carrey and Jerry Lawler had an actual feud. Carrey spat in Lawler's face and got him fired. When Lawler was rehired for the Letterman segment, he retaliated by slapping him as hard as he could - much harder than he slapped the real Kaufman during their fake feud.
b9eJQ TIL during the middle ages there was a legal category called "enbrotherment" that allowed two men to share living quarters, pool their resources, and effectively live as a married couple. The couple shared "one bread, one wine, one purse."
0e4y TIL During Prohibition, bootlegger William S. McCoy became famous for never watering down his beer or booze as opposed to many who did so to stretch profits. As a result, people starting calling his products, “the real McCoy.”