› added 12 years ago

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TIL that Steven Spielberg purposely did not allow Matt Damon to attend the pre-production Boot Canp for actors in Saving Private Ryan so the remaining cast would build up genuine resentment for his character.

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bV84 TIL that in 1976 the mayor of Montreal declared before the Olympic games that “The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby.” He was wrong. Mismanagement and gross cost overruns left the city with $1.5 billion of debt that wasn’t paid off until 2006.
JYBOV Computer scientist, mathematician, and all-around supergenius Alan Turing, who played a pivotal role in breaking secret German codes during WWII and developing the conceptual framework for the modern general purpose computer, was also a cracking good runner.
m1RDx TIL After Machiavelli's works were placed on the first Papal index of prohibited books, his family challenged the decision. The church eventually offered them to allow publication of a censored version of his works, with the author's name suppressed. His grandsons indignantly rejected the offer
Oolgg TIL The granddaughter of Chinese Republican founder Sun Yat-sen was rejected by the Communist League of China because of her family background. Despite scoring highest at school in the college-entry exam, no university accepted her until her grandfather's wife helped her get into Tongji University
1avAd TIL after Albanian citizens lost ~$1.2 billion (~$400 per capita) to Ponzi schemes in 1997, some of the losers started protesting against the government. The protests ultimately turned into a 6+ month civil war that toppled the government and killed 2000 to 3800 people.