› added 2 months ago

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TIL While the details of the invention of French Fries is disputed, their name originates during WWI. Belgian soldiers, who would speak French, often offered fries to American soldiers, who then referred to them as “French.”

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VMynB TIL that Battlefield Earth, a 1982 science fiction novel written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, has been praised by numerous fantasy and science fiction authors, among them Neil Gaiman, Frederik Pohl, and Kevin J. Anderson
9wNPp TIL that in 1961, two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped in a tobacco field in North Carolina. One was set to safety and the other one just didn’t go off by sheer luck.
oBGgR TIL that in the Guinness breweries in Ireland catholic workers were not allowed to obtain management positions until the 1960s
J17Jj TIL that after aborting their attempt to reach the North Pole. Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen would spend over a year stranded on Franz Josef Land before being rescued by Frederick George Jackson. A man Nansen had rejected from joining his North Pole expedition due to not being Norwegian.
PY1eJ TIL J.K Rowling invented Quidditch while in a pub.