› added 8 years ago

79

TIL that F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing he was a failure. Two years later 155,000 copies of ‘The Great Gatsby’ were shipped to WWII soldiers overseas, making it a widespread success. As of 1945 it’s believed to be a classic, selling 500,000 copies annually.

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x6bO5 TIL that MTV, the former home to music videos, now primarily airs Ridiculousness, during a stretch of 168 hours in late June 2020, 113 hours of programming were gobbled up by the show and during one weekend in August, episodes ran for more than 36 hours uninterrupted.
Lk0YV TIL that the Silkie Chicken is a breed named for its atypically fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like silk and satin. The breed has several other unusual qualities, such as black skin and bones, blue earlobes, and five toes on each foot, whereas most chickens only have four.
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XE56Q TIL actor John Banner, famous for his iconic role as Master Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz in CBS' Hogan's Heroes, was an Austrian-born Jew. He emigrated to the United States in 1938, and sadly, lost many of his family in the Holocaust.
NX8Ke TIL the reason many naval mines have spikes on them is because each spike contains a glass vial of battery acid. When shattered, the battery acid then energizes a lead-acid battery (which doesn't have acid inside), which then powers the detonator.