› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Simón Bolívar, the great liberator of South America, was nicknamed 'iron butt' (culo de hierro) for his "endurance on horseback." Old 'iron butt' would go on to free Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Panamá from Spanish control in the 1800s.

E18wX TIL in 1883 Sitting Bull made a speech in Sioux, not English, to US officials, generals, and railroad barons that began: "I hate all the White people, you are thieves and liars," and got worse from there. He would stop periodically to smile and bow, and the audience applauded enthusiastically.
E1W1o TIL that Jamie Lee Curtis is a Baroness because her husband Christopher Guest inherited the title of Baron and is a member of the House of Lords. She however rejects the use of the title because she believes it has nothing to do with her.
a50J TIL of Kilroy Was Here, a popular meme that originated with US soldiers in World War 2 that was graffitied on landmarks as the soldiers moved on
Wk4Zd TIL that in November of 1999, Kevin Smith attended a protest against his own movie: "Dogma." He even made it onto the local news, when the on-the-scene reporter asked him (not knowing it it was him) his thoughts on the movie. He responded: "I don't know, but I've been told, 'not good.'"
yVVvJ TIL when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, people in the capital Vienna were so violent towards their Jewish population the Nazi government threatened the the local authorities against 'undisciplined' attacks on the city's Jews (Paywalled)