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TIL the “black” music producer Johnny Otis was born a Greek man named Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes. As an adult, he decided to lead his life professional and personal life as a light skinned black man. He discovered numerous artists early in their careers including Etta James & Big Mama Thornton.

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d8BkE TIL when he accepted the role of Scrooge in A Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine said he wanted to play it, "like I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company," as if there were no puppets around him. On set, he had to walk across narrow planks between the Muppets and their performers.
BgNBy TIL that the Oregon Compulsory Education Act was enacted in part because the faiths of Catholics and Jews were viewed as "incompatible with American values".
PY99Z TIL all alcoholic drinks sold in the United States are required to be mildly radioactive. If alcohol is made in a lab it won't have any radioactive signature but alcohol made from plants will always be slightly radioactive due to the background radiation in the air and ground.
167aW TIL when Eadweard Muybridge, pioneer of photographic studies of motion, shot his wife's lover he was acquitted by jury trial because the homicide was considered "justifiable".
R7Rnl TIL, CBC had a contest to complete the phrase "as Canadian as ____" (by analogy with "as American as apple pie"). The winner: "as Canadian as possible, under the circumstances"