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TIL the photo of Pope John Paul II torn to pieces by Sinead O’Connor on SNL in 1992 was not a prop: "The photo itself had been on my mother's bedroom wall since the day the fucker was enthroned in 1978.”

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

l7pBG TIL about Jeremy Harper, who in 2007 livestreamed himself counting to 1,000,000. It took him 89 days, during which he did not leave the house or shave. He spent an average of 16 hours a day counting.
b97mp TIL that the Roman Emperor Nero did not play the fiddle as he watched the Great Fire burn Rome. When the fire broke out he was at his villa in Antium, 35 miles away. When he received news of the fire he immediately rushed back to Rome to begin relief efforts.
0LP5 TIL the oldest living vertebrate is the Greenland Shark, which is estimated to be about 400 years old-though could be as old as 512
78eAP TIL that after the Great Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll was discovered, scholars found over 2,600 small textual differences between it and the 1,000 year younger Jewish Masoretic Text - but the meaning of the texts remained mostly identical
AKxB TIL in the Harry Potter series, Tom Riddle has a different name depending on which language the book is in, in order to preserve the anagram in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.