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TIL that Washington Irving the American creator of Sleepy Hollow was integral to popularizing our current understanding of not only Halloween, but also Christmas. His stories of a British manor at Christmas time would go on to inspire Charles Dickens.

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9Y8l6 TIL in 1974, a then largely unknown Queen were booed and heckled at a music festival in Australia. Freddie Mercury told the audience, "When we come back to Australia, we will be the biggest band in the world!" Queen would return after debuting their smash hit Bohemian Rhapsody just two years later.
EgQD7 TIL Mehmet Ali Ağca was an escaped murderer who fired four bullets at Pope John II in 1981. Two of the shots entered the Pope's torso but did not hit vital organs. Mehmet had already been convicted of murdering a Turkish Newspaper editor but had escaped after six months.
lwNA TIL Country singer Marty Robbins loved NASCAR and even raced his own car. Once, he stunned everyone by running 15 mph faster than his qualifying lap. When NASCAR tried to award him, he rejected it, stating he knocked the restrictors out as he “wanted to see what it was like to run up front for once”
Oo8X1 TIL Douglas Ginsburg withdrew his nomination to the US Supreme Court after it was discovered he smoked pot with his Harvard Law School students. Anthony Kennedy was the replacement nominee.
LYe9 TIL That at the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippor War, Israeli forces of just 3,000 troops, 180 tanks and 60 artillery were able to halt the advance of a Syrian force of 28,000 troops, 800 tanks and 600 artillery until reservists were mobilised