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TIL that Louis Armstrong was initially considered for the role of King Louie in Disney's 1967 ''Jungle Book'' but one of the writers said 'You know the NAACP is going to jump all over it having a black man playing an ape – it would be politically terrible' so the part went to Louis Prima.

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DQOmY TIL that there was such a thing as Greek Fire, an ancient incendiary weapon of mass destruction.
5XZR TIL, when Green day singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s father died when he was a child. He ran home from the funeral and locked himself in his room. When his mother followed him home and asked him to come out. He told her to “wake me up when september ends.”
WkNvX TIL in the early 20th century, trains in the US were destroyed in staged head-on collisions in front of live audiences for entertainment. This ended in the 1930s as it was seen to be wasteful of old but otherwise useful locomotives at the height of the Great Depression.
pv0A TIL that there’s a bush which emits a flammable, oily substance which can be lit on fire, without burning the bush itself.
xVanB TIL that by 1991, the air in Mexico City had become so contaminated with fecal dust from humans that it was possible to contract hepatitis by simply breathing outdoors