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TIL that an NFL player simultaneously served in the US Navy. Napoleon McCallum played for the LA Raiders while assigned to a ship in Los Angeles; the military allows outside jobs that don't interfere with service. After one year he was reassigned; McCallum returned to the NFL after leaving the Navy.

5y6Q TIL Don King served less than 4 years in prison for stomping a man to death and was later pardoned for the crime by the Governor of Ohio after receiving letters of support from Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, and others.
grnpy TIL that Pearl Jam was originally called Mookie Blaylock, after an NBA player they admired. However they were forced to change the name and instead settled on naming their debut album "Ten" after Blaylock's jersey number.
oRw7r TIL Neil Diamond-Barbra Streisand hit You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore started as theme song to 1977 TV soap opera spoof All That Glitters. The show was retooled by creator Norman Lear-women are in charge, men are the sex objects-and another song used but Diamond expanded and recorded the original
mxyay TIL the word "America" is a latinized version of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who voyaged to the "new world" and published two popular booklets in Europe about the new continent. This inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to label the new land after him on his maps, creating the trend.
bWPZ TIL Paul McCartney dreamed the melody of “Yesterday” one night and immediately wrote the music the next morning. He then looked around for a month to find out whether he did not subconsciously plagiarize it from someone else.