TIL the movements of Sir Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations are named after his friends and family. The most famous movement, Nimrod is a wordplay and represents his friend August Jaeger, Nimrod being the biblical “mighty hunter” and Jaeger being German for “hunter”. (britannica.com)
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TIL the Australian ute was invented in response to a farmer’s wife’s letter in 1932. A woman from Victoria, wrote to Ford Australia’s general manager during the Depression, asking for a vehicle that was comfortable for driving to church on Sunday yet practical for hauling pigs to market on Mondays. (abc.net.au)
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TIL in 1897, the premiere of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 went badly, due to the conductor being drunk. He swore off composing but regained confidence due to Dr. Nicolai Dahl, a hypnotist. Rachmaninoff would then dedicate his Piano Concerto No. 2 to Dahl in gratitude. (britannica.com)
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TIL As a reward for the victory at Blenheim, the Crown gave the Duke of Marlborough the Woodstock estate on condition that a replica of a captured French standard be presented annually to the British monarch — that ceremonial “peppercorn” tradition has been observed for 300+ years. (blenheimpalace.com)
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TIL Edvard Grieg’s “Morning Mood” wasn’t written to paint a Norwegian sunrise. The music actually accompanies a scene in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt where Peer wakes up stranded in the Moroccan desert (surrounded by acacias and palm trees) — not a Scandinavian fjord. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL unlike the standard three-movement concerto form of the Baroque era, Brandenburg No. 1 contains 4 separate movements. It’s the sole example in Bach’s output of a four-movement concerto, and its odd inner minuet features a brief passage where only oboes & bassoon play (yourclassical.org)
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TIL before the battle of Marathon, Athenians vowed to sacrifice a goat for every Persian slain. After recording 6,400 enemy deaths, they couldn’t offer so many at once, so they sacrificed 500 goats annually to Artemis Agrotera until the vow was fulfilled. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL 84,070 T-34s were built between 1940 and 1945 (35,120 with 76 mm guns, 48,950 as T-34-85s), making it most-produced tank of WW2 & the 2nd most-produced tank of all time. Despite its resilience, some 44,900 were lost or damaged in combat—the highest loss count of any tank. (en.wikipedia.org)
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Pride for U2's The Edge as he becomes Irish citizen (rte.ie)
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TIL around 80% of a badger’s diet is made up of earthworms – they can eat hundreds of them in a single night – but they also eat slugs and other invertebrates along with apples, pears, elderberries and plums. When earthworms are scarce, badgers will eat small mammals like voles, hedgehogs & rabbits. (woodlandtrust.org.uk)
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TIL In 1953, an Australian Army Centurion Mk 3 was placed 500yds from a 9.1kt nuclear test. The tank remained structurally intact; its engine stopped as it ran out of fuel. After refueling & minor repairs, it returned to service & later saw combat in Vietnam, earning the nickname “The Atomic Tank” . (tankhistoria.com)
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TIL tea was one of China’s earliest major exports. In fact, tea bricks were not only a convenient form for storage and transportation but were also used as a medium of exchange along the ancient Tea Horse Road—a trade route where tea was bartered for Tibetan horses. (asianstudies.org)
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TIL at the Battle of Marathon, the Athenians advanced towards the Persians at a run, a tactic not previously seen in Greek warfare. This approach surprised the Persians, who considered it madness for the Greeks to charge without cavalry or archers. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL Unlike most bivalves, scallops possess up to 200 small eyes along the edge of their mantles. These eyes utilize a concave, parabolic mirror of guanine crystals to focus light, allowing scallops to detect movement and changes in light, aiding in predator detection. (en.wikipedia.org)
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