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TIL Dustin Hoffman "helped" co-star Meryl Streep in a scene of 1979 film Kramer vs Kramer by slapping her hard in the face without warning. "This was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me." Despite a contentious working relationship, both won Oscars.

M0Nm TIL Leslie Nielsen Used to Walk Into the Cockpit and say “Good luck. We’re all counting on you,” to the Pilots when he would fly (end of the article)
woQwY TIL we know where China’s first emperor is buried, but his 2,200-year-old tomb—described as containing a scale model of China with rivers of mercury—has never been opened
VBrx8 TIL that cyclist Mario Cipollini, widely regarded as one of best the sprinters of his generation, disliked mountain stages so much that he would sometimes skip them entirely, all while releasing photos of himself lounging at the beach while the others struggled in the mountains.
kyd TIL Bertrand Russell survived a plane crash at the age of 76, in which 19 of the 43 passengers died. Russell survived because he was seated in the smoking section, claiming before the flight that “If I cannot smoke, I shall die.”
4kgOa TIL “Bésame Mucho” (“Kiss Me a Lot”) was written in 1941 by Consuelo Velasquez, who was about 15 years old at the time, in bolero style. Inspired by the Nightingale Aria from the opera “Goyescas” by Enrique Granados, she said that she had never been kissed when she wrote the song.