› added 11 years ago

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TIL in 1990, a 15-yo Kuwaiti girl testified to US Congress that Kuwaiti babies were being taken out of their incubators by Iraqi soldiers and left to die. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of a US ambassador & that her testimony was part of a PR campaign to sell the war to the public.

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6E1Bl TIL Peter Sellers lines in the classic flick Dr Strangelove were mostly improvised by Sellers on the set, including the spontaneous uncontrollable Nazi salute. Kubrick then included the lines in the official screenplay via retroscripting. The character was based on former Nazi Wernher von Braun
5YgLp TIL that in the 1930s Austria established its own Fascist dictatorship with its own version of the Swastika whose leader, Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated on Hitler's orders in 1934.
XED1r TIL that George C. Scott refused the Academy Award for his portrayal of George Patton on philosophical grounds. His reasoning was that dramatic performances were so unique that to compare them to each other was impossible.
g8PD TIL the Olsen Twins purchased sole ownership of an entertainment company in 2004 and turned it into a billion-dollar enterprise.
6EYWW TIL that Malt-O-Meal (makers of those "off brand" cereals) are owned by Post making them effectively not off brand at all