The truth, according to The Tolkien Society, is a little less dramatic. Tolkien studied the Classics, Old English, the Germanic languages, Welsh, and Finnish for the first part of his college career, earning a second-class degree in 1913 at the halfway point of a four-year Oxford Classics course.
Read MoreThere is one thing that keeps tech billionaire Elon Musk up at night, and it's not spiders or ghosts or dying in a fiery hyperloop accident. This is the one thing Elon Musk is most terrified of.
Read MoreHaving lionized Tell for centuries, the Swiss had a hard time swallowing the bitter pill of their misguided history. According to Curious Historian, de Haller's book William Tell: A Danish Fable "caused such an outcry that people publicly burned the book." De Haller had to publicly apologize.
Read MoreIn 2013 she told Vanity Fair, "those two [last] records I made with almost no vocal ability at all. But I just acted like I was working with a limited palette, like a painter would do -- you know, it's only browns and ivory and black."
Read MoreElon Musk described his childhood as "miserable," claiming that his dad was capable of carrying out "evil" deeds.
Read MoreLincoln is not just a good politician; he was also something of an inventor, dabbling in mechanical creativity. And he even managed a patent for one of his inventions, said Time Magazine, the first (and so far, only) president to hold a patent.
Read MoreAs Stapp himself recounts in his 2016 interview with Oprah (posted on YouTube), he was addicted to alcohol and drugs such as Adderall and started believing that the CIA was conducting "mind-control" on him.
Read MoreChasen left the party and picked up her car from the valet. At about 12:28 a.m., "four shots were fired through the vehicle's front passenger window as it likely slowed or stopped in the left-hand turn lane heading west on Sunset to make the turn south on to Whittier Drive."
Read MoreThe unusual liqueur has been around since 1860, when Milan-based café owner Gaspare Campari bottled some of the stuff in his basement, as recounted by Saveur. Its candied vermilion hue, spiced yet bitter taste retains a refined, unique quality that beckons the drinker to challenge their senses.
Read MoreCats also tend to sleep all day, luxuriating in the knowledge that someone will be around to care for them anyway. Or so it seems. In truth, your cats aren't being lazy or acting like they own your house. Their sleeping patterns are a holdover from their previous life as hunters.
Read MoreBesides Vaseline in particular, Coolidge had some interesting ideas about health in general. The website Medicare Supplement ranks him as the 22nd healthiest president in history, earning a grade of C and receiving the dubious distinction of "pickiest eater of all presidents."
Read MoreLoeb wanted to make the newspapers with a crime so sensational that the press couldn't help but take notice. Although Leopold would later claim that he only went along with the plan "to please Dick" (via PBS), he had his own interest in committing the perfect crime.
Read MoreAccording to Reuters, the notoriously violent Hells Angels biker gang conspired to murder the chicken dancing frontman of The Rolling Stones after the fallout from the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival on December 6, 1969.
Read MoreSome crazy things happened during the film's production. For instance, the set burned down. Everyone was home for the night when the film's production manager called director William Friedkin and told him not to bother coming into work the next day.
Read MoreIs it such a stretch for a movie like The Big Lebowski to inspire some sort of life credo? Think about it for a second. How bad could a religion be that brings the laid-back teachings of "The Dude" to life?
Read MoreWhen TLC burst into the scene in the 1990s, people stood up and took notice. These were three women confident in themselves and singing about female empowerment. Most memorably, TLC incorporated rap breaks, courtesy of the firecracker Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes. It was Lopes who crafted the TLC image.
Read MoreEnter Gin Genie, a short-lived "superhero" in X-Force, and later X-Statix (no, not Static-X), whose superpower is connected to debilitating alcoholism. Namely, the more she drinks, the stronger her seismic blasts become. So it's basically always in her best interests to be an ornery drunk
Read More"The woman of the year 2000 will be an outsize Diana, anthropologists and beauty experts predict. She will be more than six feet tall, wear a size 11 shoe, have shoulders like a wrestler and muscles like a truck driver." According to Roe, women would have "Amazonian" proportions.
Read MoreWhile Merle Haggard had an illustrious career as a country musician, he led a rocky, tumultuous life. This is the tragic real-life story of Merle Haggard.
Read MoreIt might come as a surprise to learn that Ronald Reagan and his second wife, Nancy, made many decisions after consulting not an all-powerful, all-knowing God, but rather the messages hidden in the stars overhead.
Read MoreThe curse of the pharaohs is a long-held belief that archaeologists and others who come into contact with Egyptian artifacts will be caused by the spirits of pharaohs. The curse of the pharaohs originated after the death of Lord Carnarvon, who helped open the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922.
Read MoreWhile a "day in the life of" may not be as glamorous as Chuck Norris delivering roundhouse kicks to the jaws of '90s TV ruffians, the small cadre of elite Texan police plays an actual, prominent role in the state's law enforcement and criminal investigation, kind of like a Texas-only FBI.
Read MoreThe majority of people who've never taken a philosophy class have a hard time naming -- or caring about, for that matter -- more than a handful of philosophers, but any middle school student could tell you who Pythagoras was. He was the guy with the triangles. All of the "a²+b²=c²" nonsense.
Read MoreLet's face it: Fred Rogers had a lot of good points to make. He's arguably one of the best portrayals of non-toxic masculinity ever to grace TV screens. Mister Rogers had no problem pushing the boundaries of social thought during the less tolerant times of the 20th century
Read MoreThe beginning of a new year has always been cause for celebration, introspection, and superstition, but as we saw in 1999 when Y2K was a thing, it's also a time for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It wasn't so different 1,000 years ago. Here's what it was really like on New Year's, 1000 AD.
Read MoreLiving in the Wild West wasn't easy, but doctors did their best to save their patients. Here's what life was like for doctors in the Wild West.
Read MoreOriginally, the plan was to start this new kind of race in the 1930s, but, ESPN reported, it had to be shelved at the onslaught of World War II. The idea was rekindled in 1946 to help buoy morale in Europe after the war. That year was the first racing season of Formula 1.
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