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TIL Joaquin Phoenix along with three of his siblings were raised under the “Children of God” cult which their parents were members of until 1978. After leaving the cult, the family changed their name from “Bottom” to “Phoenix” in order to symbolize a new beginning

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wL55J TIL the founder of lingerie company Victoria's Secret sold the business for just $1 million five years after founding it, and later commited suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge as the firm went on to produce billion dollar revenues for the new owner.
R5961 TIL that when composer Joseph Haydn died his head was stolen for study by people practicing phrenology-the pseudoscientific study of how the shape of ones skull reflects their intellect. His skull was eventual returned and interred with the rest of his body in 1954, 145 years later.
gMdjA TIL of Edmond Albius. As a 12 year old slave boy in 1841, he invented the technique for pollinating vanilla orchids profitably. Without this technique, it’s unlikely that vanilla would be nearly as well known as it is today.
EdJd TIL that in when David Reimer was born in 1965, his doctor had accidentally burned off his penis during a failed circumcision. His family, under the guidance of Dr. John Money, decided to raise him as a girl, to prove that nurture, and not nature, defines sexual identity. It failed
0wjjR TIL that guitarist Eddie Van Halen was half Indonesian, and that his family immigrated to the United States because of how badly his mixed-race parents were treated in the Netherlands.