› added 6 years ago

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TIL Molotov cocktail was coined by the Finns. Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov claimed that bombs used on the Finnish was humanitarian aid, so Finns started calling them "Molotov bread baskets". When using incendiaries to counter Soviet tanks, they called them "a drink to go with the food"

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j0Ov TIL That in 2007, renown violinist Joshua Bell once played 6 Bach pieces at a metro station in DC. He played some of the hardest songs ever on a $3,500,000 violin for 45 minutes, and made $32 with 6 people watching. He frequently sells out shows for $100 a piece. There was no applause.
78Kr TIL Rochus Misch, age 95, is the last surviving person to have known Hitler personally and witnessed his suicide. He worked as his personal bodyguard, courier and phone operator in the Fuhrerbunker, and still lives in the same house in Berlin where he moved upon his release from the Soviets in 1954
8k0Z TIL in 1956, due to a combination of air friction and a steepened dive path, an F-11 Tiger shot itself down with its own gunfire
M7ONb TIL that the leopard attack scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey involved a real leopard pouncing on a real person. Kubrick, despite being known for recording several takes of every shot, only recorded a couple takes to protect the actor and accepted that he wouldn't like the end result.
5YdBB TIL shepherds in Gascony, France traditionally wore stilts called tchangues (“big legs”) that allowed them to walk rapidly on marshy ground.