› added 2 years ago

67

TIL Soviet ballet prodigy Rudolf Nureyev was from a Muslim Tartar family and started dance in Bashkir folk performances. On tour in Paris, he escaped the KGB to socialize at gay bars and with foreigners. In retaliation for defecting to the West, he was banned from seeing his mother for 25 years.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b9mY7 TIL in 2013, Australian blogger Belle Gibson claimed to have beaten brain cancer using 'natural remedies' — selling a cookbook to cancer patients with all her 'secrets'. It was later revealed she never even had cancer, and was fined $410,000 by the Australian government for her deceptive practices.
wjZY TIL Lurch from a The Addams Family was originally supposed to be mute, but “You rang?” was ad-libbed and the producers thought it was so funny that they wrote more lines for the character.
kOVAB TIL the Cameroon olive pigeon (Columba sjostedti) is found in the dense misty forests and gullies from 1000 up to 2500m in elevation in Cameroon and adjacent Nigeria. It eats pulpy fruits and hard seeds. It has bluish gray plumage; yellow eyepatches, beak and feet; and white spotting on its breast.
XELBP TIL people with Bipolar are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol due to the initial effects of the drug temporarily relieving the effects caused from the disorder, making them more likely to develop addictions
GYabJ TIL Due to some deeply evolved responses to disease, fears of contagion lead us to become more conformist and tribalistic, and less accepting of eccentricity.