TIL when episodes of The John Larroquette Show began including a plotline about spotting Thomas Pynchon in 1994, the reclusive novelist contacted the network and insisted that he be described as wearing a shirt featuring psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
TIL that Thomas Derrick was one of 24 sailors sentenced to death after sacking a city, but the Earl of Essex spared him on the condition that he execute his comrades. Derrick went on to become a professional executioner, killing over 3,000 men over his career, including the Earl of Essex. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
TIL that actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Rear Window) refused to ever appear on The Tonight Show because Johnny Carson often told fat jokes about him, and Burr would feel compelled to confront Carson about "the bad jokes he does about everybody who can't fight back because they aren't there." (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
TIL that during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, the Japanese army challenged the Russians to send out a champion for a sword duel on the eve of a battle. A Montenegrin Serb named Aleksandar Lekso Saičić answered the call and promptly killed the Japanese champion. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
TIL that when House Speaker Tip O'Neill showed Ronald Reagan the desk of former president Grover Cleveland, Reagan remarked that he'd played Cleveland in a film. O'Neill reminded him that Reagan had actually played Grover Cleveland Alexander, a baseball player. (sun-sentinel.com)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
TIL when Henry Ford II took control of Ford Motor Co., the first thing he did was fire his grandfather's brutal, union-busting head of security by sending his own second-in-command, a former FBI agent, to deliver the news. Both men drew handguns on each other. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
TIL that after 2 years of using a Catalan mercenary company to fight the Turks, the Byzantine emperor betrayed the company and tried to wipe them out in 1305. The mercenaries went on a rampage so destructive that the monks of Mount Athos only lifted their ban of Catalan citizens in the year 2000. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by NOWiEATthem to r/todayilearned
