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TIL Winston Churchill got Iran to change its name to Persia, to avoid confusion with Iraq during WW2

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bgv0 TIL Bejeweled also originated in Russia, just like Tetris.
kOB5e TIL that the largest trebuchet ever made was called 'War Wolf' and, at ~400ft tall, was so massive and intimidating that it made the Scots surrender on sight. Despite this, it was fired anyway to observe the destruction it would cause.
xDnk TIL In 2005 the Italian Prime Minister, Berlusconi, insulted Finnish cuisine and joked that Finns ate “marinated reindeer”. In 2008, Finland won an international pizza contest, beating Italy. The name of the winning pizza was “Pizza Berlusconi” which was made of smoked reindeer.
9YeoD TIL the film "My Blue Heaven" is related to "Goodfellas." Intended to be a comedic take on Henry Hill's (aka Vincent Antonelli) life in witness protection, it was written by Nora Ephron...the wife of "Goodfellas" co-writer Nicholas Pileggi...and her own convos with Hill during the same time period.
8aNxZ TIL in 2003, a woman found a stolen painting worth $1 million in the trash on a NYC curb. She felt it "had power" and took it without knowing its origin or value. She spent 4 years researching it and discovered it’d been stolen in 1987. She got a $15,000 reward plus a % of its $1,049,000 sale price.