› added 2 years ago

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TIL Legendary singer song writer Bobbie Gentry ('Ode to Billy Joe', 'Fancy', etc) abruptly quit the music business at the height of her fame in 1982 and disappeared. To this day it is not known where she went, what she did, or where she currently resides. All efforts to contact her have failed.

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d8b7B TIL, about Frank “Cannonball” Richards, a carnival entertainer who’s most famous act involved getting hit by a 104 lbs cannonball from close range; he performed the act twice a day because “more than that was too painful.”
69LdZ TIL the version of "Earth Angel" by The Penguins that became an unexpected hit had only been recorded by the band as a literal garage demo; drums on the track were muffled with pillows so as to not overwhelm the vocals. A neighbour's pet dog stopped many takes by barking.
5k49 TIL Liam Neeson was training to be a Teacher until he punched a 15 year old student in the face for pulling out a knife
dgQr TIL Soviet Finswimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan once saved 20 people from a drowning trolleybus at the bottom of a 25 metres (80 ft) offshore at a depth of 10 metres (33 ft). He spent 45 days in a coma after this heroic act. Then he saved people from a burning building.
Oom6X TIL that during the Joker Pencil Trick scene in The Dark Knight was as dangerous as it looked. Charles Jarman, who played the Pencil Trick Thug, stated that he had to remove the pencil, in order to make it look realistic, before Joker (played by Heath Ledger) slammed his head on the table.