› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, never took another film role and instead found a career as a vet. He did not speak publicly about the film for nearly twenty years, and for several years even his wife did not know about his role.

wLD1J TIL of Dorothy Levitt: Among her many achievements, she held the water speed record, the women's land speed record, and even lays claim to inventing the rear-view mirror—seven years before being adopted by manufacturers.
oMNY TIL that Nestlé aggressively distributes free formula samples in developing countries till the supplementation has interfered with the mother’s lactation. After that the family must continue to buy the formula since the mother is no longer able to produce milk on her own
YpveB TIL of the 1904 disaster of the burning and sinking of sidewheel passenger steamboat PS General Slocum. At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died.
Y7g5d TIL until 2020 there were only two factories producing the lacquer (acetate) discs used as masters to produce vinyl records... and then one of them burned down, leaving only a factory in Japan producing all masters in the world.
QNWpM TIL that in spite of a public funeral attended by thousands, blues singer Bessie Smith’s grave was unmarked until 1970 because her husband refused to buy a headstone and pocketed the money when her friends attempted to purchase one on her behalf.