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TIL that In 1963, a 16-year-old mailed a survey to 150 novelists, asking if they intentionally planted symbolism in their work. Jack Kerouac, Ralph Ellison, Ray Bradbury and other notable names responded.

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gr66X TIL that the children’s song “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” is a sanitized version of “Do Your Balls Hang Low?”, which was popular with British soldiers in WWI. General Douglas Haig once heard a column of soldiers singing it and went to berate their commander, only to find the commander singing along.
R7gOa TIL Casey Jones sacrificed himself in order to slow his train to save his passengers from serious injury or death. He was the only fatality.
Brkpk TIL Betty White was good friends with famed author John Steinbeck. White's husband Allen Ludden attended the same school as Steinbeck's wife Elaine. The couples became close friends and Steinbeck gave an early draft of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech to Ludden for his birthday.
XE6Wk TIL that Orson Welles was only 23 years old when he made "War of the Worlds," the 1938 radio play that allegedly fooled some listeners into thinking Earth was being invaded by Martians. He was 25 when he made "Citizen Kane," still considered one of the greatest American films of all time.
xyo1 TIL the 27th amendment to the Constitution, which restricts the ability of Congress to raise its own pay, was ratified in 1992, more than 200 years after the first state approved it in 1789.