› added 4 years ago

231

TIL J.R.R. Tolkien sold the film rights to Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit in 1969 for £100000 and 7.5% of the gross revenue. His estate ended up suing New Line Cinema for £75 million in 2008

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

NXPpJ TIL that in 1984, actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson on Law & Order SVU, appeared in Ronnie Milsap's music video for "She Loves My Car", which was the first country music video to appear on MTV.
OooVg TIL that "Texas" is slang for "crazy" in Norway.
d8mlQ TIL "A fake U.S. Embassy operated in Ghana for about a decade, issuing false visas and other documents until it was discovered in 2016."
0wBBj TIL: America's most iconic snack company - responsible for the Oreo, Vanilla Wafer, Fig Newton, and others - is the result of a merger in 1898 of the major biscuit producers of the time to form the "National Biscuit Company", or better known as "NaBisCo".
MeKKK TIL in 1825, a British geologist went to Sicily and examined the remains of a female saint. He concluded that they weren’t human and likely belonged to a goat. He told the priests, who kicked him out and then placed the bones into a casket to prevent future study.