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TIL that Juan de Pareja, the slave of the Spanish artist Velazquez, became a skilled artist in his own right by observing his master's techniques and practising them in secret.

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oRNoE TIL that Waffen SS was finished off by the Free North Vietnamese Army. The French recruited the Elite Waffen SS for the battle of Dien Bien Phu and their Indochina Conflict post WW2
9Y71m TIL eating Oreos may cause your poop to turn black. Due mostly to the artificial food coloring and chemicals in packaged cookies.
ANxew TIL: That two days before the outbreak of WWII, the BBC was taken off air; the final broadcast being the Mickey Mouse cartoon, "Mickey's Gala Premier". BBC Television returned at 3pm on 7th June 1946 and twenty minutes later, aired the same Mickey Mouse cartoon that they had broadcast in 1939.
JngV TIL In 1939, Władysław Szpilman, known from “The Pianist”, was in the middle of performing a Chopin piece when German fire on Polish Radio’s studio forced him to stop playing. This was Poland’s last live music broadcast until 1945, when he opened the first broadcast by picking up where he left off.
W7NyN TIL that Kay, Zales, Jared, and over a dozen other jewelry brands are all owned by the same parent company, Signet Jewelers.