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TIL that Lincoln Cathedral in England was the tallest building in the world from 1311 to 1549, when its spire collapsed. Its original height was not surpassed until 1890.

JYyWl TIL of Antonio Prohías, a Cuban cartoonist who was accused of working for the CIA by the Castro government. He fled to New York and went on to create Spy vs Spy for Mad Magazine. Later he said, "The sweetest revenge has been to turn Fidel's accusation of me as a spy into a moneymaking venture."
6E8bQ TIL that a man set a record for the most expensive free drink at Starbucks ever when he used a coupon to order a "mega" latte with 101 shots of espresso and 17 pumps of vanilla syrup. His drink contained nearly 7500 mg of caffeine and rang up to $83.75.
4XAX5 TIL that the Syndey Opera House is considered one of the worst project managerment failures of our time. It was 10 years late, 14 times over budget, the architect never saw it completed and the project manager never worked on another project in his career (he became a lecturer at Hawaii Uni)
LQk6P TIL Moe Howard of The Three Stooges once broke three ribs filming a pratfall. Dazed, he managed to pick himself up off the ground and slap Curly in the face before passing out. The footage ended up being used in the finished short.
KYEVJ TIL about the Phoebus Cartel, an oligopoly that carved up the early light bulb market for profit and to reduce the operating life of light bulbs from about 2,500 hours to under 1,000 hours to force people to buy more bulbs. It’s an early example of planned obsolescence to drive profits.