› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Sir Christopher Lee(who played Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings") read the trilogy every year from the year it was published to his death in 2015. He was also the only member of the cast and crew ever to have met J.R.R Tolkien himself.

Read more tolkiengateway.net

via reddit.com

NwKP TIL that Stalin, sent an expedition to open Timur (Tamerlane) Kahn’s tomb, which had an inscription that read, ““Whoever disturbs my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I,” and two days later Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest and most brutal invasion of WWII.
R5xd6 TIL of Timothy Dexter - a barely literate American businessman, who was desperate for public office, and became wealthy through a series of improbable investments.
NxWJ TIL: The biggest cities, like NYC (212), Chicago(312), and Los Angeles (213), were assigned the shortest area codes so they could be dialed fastest on rotary phones; that’s why Anchorage (907) got the short end of the stick.
yQGv8 TIL that in the 50's NASA recruited Deaf people to research why they didn't get motion sickness. Tests included flights in 'Vomit Comet' and sailing in the rough seas (researchers got violently sick, while Deaf people just played cards happily).
LbBV TIL In 2009 researchers performed DNA tests on a skull Soviet officials had longed believed to be the only remains of Hitler. The tests revealed that the skull was actually that of a woman less than 40 years old. There is still no confirmed story on Hitler’s death.