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TIL that in 1972, Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack shot a feature-length documentary on Aretha Franklin but forgot to use clapperboards, which made it impossible to sync audio and video and left all of the footage unusable. The film was finally salvaged and released 46 years later.

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XEgbk TIL that fossils of sea creatures called Ammonites are considered holy symbols in the folk Hindu beliefs of India and Nepal. They and other marine fossils are found in the Himalayas, which were raised from the now-drained Tethys Sea. Climbers to Mt Everest have brought back fossils of Sea Lilies.
pgrN TIL of Tommy McHugh, who at 51 “attempted to evacuate his bowels quickly due to a knock on the toilet door,” suffered a brain hemorrhage, and unlocked a previously hidden talent for creating poetry and art
XlGr TIL that it is still legal in 19 states to paddle students as a form of punishment.
J1dk1 TIL Sophia of Prussia (then Crown Princess of Greece) was banned from Germany for 3 years by her brother, the Kaiser, for converting to Greek Orthodoxy
4XZog TIL There's a theory that John Wilkes Booth wasn't killed after assassinating Abraham Lincoln, but that he actually escaped and lived under a pseudonyms for 38 more years -- and that his mummified body toured the country for decades after his true death in 1903.