› added 5 years ago

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TIL that some experts theorize John F. Kennedy might not have lived out his term, even if he hadn't been assassinated. He suffered from Addison's disease, and would have likely been bedridden or dead by 1965 or 1966.

Bg8Yd TIL about the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. Inexperienced US Marine battalions stopped attacks with makeshift trenches and rifle fire alone, fought through machine gun kill fields down to pistol and knife range and defeated the Germans despite more than 50% casualties including most officers.
QNQGX TIL Adam Sandler's acting teacher took him to a bar, bought him a beer, and advised him to quit acting. Years later, as Sandler became a famous actor, he encountered his teacher at a bar. instead of boasting, he introduced him to his friends saying, "This is the only teacher to ever buy me a beer"
Wkm9d TIL of Rhea Clyman, a Jewish Canadian Journalist who travelled to the Soviet Union and made reports on the Siberian labor camps and the Holodomor. This led to her deportation in 1933 after which she reported on Nazi Germany until 1938 when she was forced to flee due to growing anti Semitism.
loEa TIL that Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, formerly of Steel Dan and The Doobie Brothers, is now a defense consultant and chaired a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense. He is self taught, and got into defense consulting as a hobby.
9Y7jr TIL of William Chester Minor; one of the largest contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary who murdered a man at point-blank and was "not guilty by reason of insanity". He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent the next 38 years in a psychiatric hospital up until he died at age 85.