› added 7 years ago

326

TIL about Havergal Brian who wrote the longest symphony in the world called The Gothic. It has only been performed 6 times since it was finished in 1927. It requires 200 musicians and 800 singers, including brass bands, a children’s choir, and a machine that makes thunder sounds.

0dOJy TIL James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale exercised influence over "rotten" boroughs like Cockermouth and had an affair with a tenant upon whose death he refused burial and placed her decaying corpse in a glass-topped coffin in a cupboard. He was often called "the Earl of Toadstool" or "Wicked Jimmy."
R7XKw TIL that during World War 1, the American Expeditionary Forces tried to make the French treat Black soldiers in accordance with Jim Crow laws ''due to concerns that black soldiers and officers working with the French were being treated with too much “familiarity and indulgence.”
vP5Y8 TIL before founding the Rolling Stones, frontman Mick Jagger studied finance and accounting at the prestigious London School of Economics. Originally, he had intended to pursue a career in journalism or politics.
rRQjx TIL that Luckner "Vampire" Cambronne - head of Haiti's murderous Tonton Macoutes, who killed 30000+ people, and sold corpses and (allegedly HIV-infected) blood to US institutions - emigrated to USA in 1972, and lived in Miami, comfortable and undisturbed, until 2006.
wLgV6 TIL that according to a 2014 Pew Poll, 23% of Americans who identify as libertarians have no idea what the word means