› added 2 months ago

69

TIL that Einstein was an accomplished violinist and often played to relax and think. His violin was fetched upward of half a million at New York auction.

Read more newatlas.com

via reddit.com

X8Dr TIL Eric Carle, the American-born illustrator and writer of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, moved to Germany as a kid in the 1930s, and was conscripted to dig trenches for the German army when he was 15 years old. Now 87 years old, he is one of the youngest surviving WWII veterans.
JY4R1 TIL NBC would occasionally add a fourth note to its chimes to notify reporters to immediately return to the office to prepare historic news reports. The fourth chime was most famously used during the nation's D-Day reports, but was discontinued after WWII.
XEGoR TIL the "piano" means "soft" in Italian. The instrument's name is actually short for "pianoforte" (soft-loud) which is short for “gravicembalo col piano e forte” (harpsichord with soft and loud). Calling it "piano" defeats the purpose of its original name that meant to depict its dynamic sound.
0wvNN TIL in Lord of the Rings The Two Towers the majority of the Rohirrim(Riders of Rohan) were actually female stunt riders with fake beards/make up.(30:24)
QJw96 TIL that in 2015 authorities in Germany seized a World War Two tank which was being kept in a senior's basement. The Panther tank was removed from the 78-year-old's house in the town of Heikendorf, along with a variety of other military equipment, including a torpedo and an anti-aircraft gun.