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TIL of Kevin Peter Hall, the actor who played the Predator (1987), who was in a near fatal car accident in 1990. While receiving a blood transfusion at the hospital, he contracted AIDS and died less than a year later.

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via reddit.com

nWmab TIL that Albuquerque, New Mexico--setting of the Breaking Bad universe--derives its name from the Latin phrase for "white oak." Oak trees, of course, are famous for producing acorns, but white oak trees don't produce their signature product until they're 50 years old, much like BB's main character.
GYWyN TIL a Hungarian chemist during WWII hid his Nobel Prize by dissolving it in acid and leaving it on a shelf due to the Nazi ban on its citizens from accepting the Nobel Prize. After the war, he reconstituted the gold from the acid, returned it to Sweden, and got the medal cast again.
loDjN TIL Bryan Cranston's father was an actor, but did not secure enough roles to provide for his family. He walked out on the family when Bryan was 11 years old, and they did not see each other again until a 22-year-old Bryan and his brother Kyle decided to track him down.
XJxj TIL in 1940 the Polish Underground Army purposefully had a soldier detained and sent to Auschwitz in order to collect intelligence.
W7GGY TIL Tarantino created the part of Jules in Pulp Fiction for Laurence Fishburne but he turned it down. This created a butterfly effect that actually made Samuel L Jackson get the part in Die Hard 3 which also written for Fishburne