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TIL The Navy contacted the Village People to use “In the Navy” in an advertising campaign for television and radio. They gave the rights to the song for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. The Navy provided them with a warship, several aircraft, and plenty of seamen

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QNV8E TIL that Dartmouth College founder Eleazar Wheelock named the school after William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth in an effort to gain his financial support for the new college, as Legge had funded other schools founded by Wheelock in the past. Legge refused and vocally opposed Dartmouth's founding.
rNLJy TIL Festivus was a holiday created and celebrated by Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe's family as far back as 1966. In the O'Keefe family, there was no Festivus pole, but a Festivus clock that was nailed to a wall. When Dan asked his father, "Why a clock?", his father said "That's not for you to know"
v1Ev8 TIL that German WWI ace German pilot Oswald Boelcke was so respected by his peers that the British Royal Flying Corps dispatched an aircraft to drop a wreath over his home airfield. He was so influential that his dogfighting tactics are still used today in modern aerial warfare.
KanJ TIL With funds from ALS 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge, scientists found a gene called NEK1 and can now develop gene therapy to treat inherited ALS
ZpJxQ TIL: NPR history department compiled a list of 1800s American slang which includes, "Shoddyocracy" = people who got rich selling bad products, "Wake snakes" = get into trouble, "Bottom fact" = undisputed fact, and "Chicagoed" = to be beaten badly.