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TIL about Return to Dust, a Chinese film which ends with the dirt poor farmer’s suicide. In the censored version, it ended with a statement that the farmer “moved to his new home in the winter of 2011 and started his new life with the help of the government and the warm-hearted villagers.”

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9YRxD TIL that in 1954, the French was soundly defeated by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu. That was the first time a non-European colony defeated a modern Western occupier in a pitched battle. The victory then fuelled the independence movements in other colonies, like Algeria
JYK8Q TIL that Velcro was invented after burrs kept getting stuck to George de Mestral's socks, so he put one under a microscope and got the idea for a "hook and loop" inspired closure method.
7rYoM TIL that eclipses are of extreme importance to historians, as they are one of the only ways to precisely date many historical events, thus allowing the timing of events around the eclipse to also be determined.
BVdK TIL that the producer of a TV movie on Hitler was fired for suggesting parallels between the climate surrounding Nazism and the War on terror.
4X TIL Danny DeVito did the voice of the Lorax in five different languages, English, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian.