› added 8 months ago

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TIL that Roman emperor Nero participated in the Olympics in AD 67. He had bribed organizers to postpone the games for a year so he could participate and won every contest in which he was a competitor. After he died a year later, his name was removed from the list of winners

mxBeR TIL Andrew Thielen's info was fraudulently sold to debt collectors. Their conduct enraged him to the point of spending a years-long crusade to find the source that committed this fraud. Using the same intimidating tactics collectors tried to use on him, he worked his way to the man responsible.
Kov9 TIL Director Guillermo del Toro’s father was kidnapped for ransom in 1997. He was returned safely after his family was forced to pay double the ransom. Del Toro has been in “involuntary exile” from Mexico ever since.
9Y0Er TIL that in 1968, in protest of the UK government cutting military funding, a Royal Air Force pilot went rogue and flew a Hunter jet low over parliament, rattling their windows, before tucking through a gap just 200 ft wide in Tower Bridge. The stunt remains as a record to this day.
VBEB0 TIL that in 1956, the Comics Code Authority tried to prevent a story from being printed because it involved a black astronaut, even though this was never actually forbidden by the Code. Fortunately, the publisher managed to get the CCA to back down by threatening to take the matter to court.
6E1b7 TIL that in Marvel comics, The Beatles are actually a group of rogue skrulls who came to Earth to invade it but decided that the money and power was better.