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TIL the idea for the Guinness Book of World Records was conceived when Sir Hugh Beaver (Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery) attended a party in Ireland in the early 1950s, where he and his hosts argued about the fastest game bird in Europe* and failed to find an answer in any reference book.

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via reddit.com

VMLbQ TIL that in the movie Noah's Ark, filmed in 1928, the flood scene at the movie's climax was created by actually dumping 600,000 gallons of water onto the set. Three extras drowned and many suffered broken bones. This led to the introduction of safety regulations for movie stunts in 1929.
lob4N TIL the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s have a ‘Flavour Graveyard’ where unpopular ice cream flavours go when they are retired.
nWNdo TIL that safety concerns of the Jules Rimet Trophy during WWII led Ottorino Barassi, who was FIFA vice-president at the time, to remove the trophy from a bank and hide it in a shoebox under his bed. The trophy stayed safe under Barassi’s bed until the World Cup returned after WWII in 1950 in Brazil.
Z8B6B TIL that Zhang Xianzhong was a leader of a peasant revolt who conquered sichuan and practically depopulated the region so thoroughly that some sources estimate that 2 million people died under his rule.
QJ18e TIL of Richard Pavlick, a retired postal worker who slipped past the Secret Service on a mission to assassinate president-elect JFK in 1960. Pavlick decided not to attempt the assassination because he did not wish to harm Kennedy's wife and children.