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TIL in 2010 Mike Patton (Faith no More, MR Bungle) released an album containing a series of cover versions of 1950s and 1960s Italian pop music, entitled "Mondo Cane", featuring a forty-member orchestra and fifteen-piece backing band

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1Nd4 TIL Theodore Roosevelt Jr was the only general to land on the beaches during D-Day. Although he was the oldest man on the beach and walked with a cane, he was the first man out of his landing craft. He recited poetry and joked with his men to keep them calm. He was awarded the Medal of Honor.
9OOB TIL there was a fake French reality show in the style of the Milgram experiment, which made real and unwitting contestants shock someone on TV. 80% of them kept shocking the person (who was just an actor), even after he cried out for them to stop. 60% shocked him till he appeared to die.
ADb9B TIL "Closing Time" by Semisonic is not just about people leaving a bar at closing time. Drummer Jacob Slichter has also indicated that the song was written by Dan Wilson "in anticipation of fatherhood" & that it is about "being sent forth from the womb as if by a bouncer clearing out a bar."
xoww TIL the “X” in “Xmas” isn’t a way to avoid mentioning Christ. “X” represents Chi (χ), the first Greek letter of Χριστός (“Christ”). “Christ” has been abbreviated “X” in English for centuries, as it was in Greek.
xVlQ0 TIL after she was burned at the stake, Joan of Arcs brothers hired an imposter so they could collect on her good name fraudulently.