› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz refused to use a laugh track for A Charlie Brown Christmas. He thought the audience should be able to enjoy the show without being cued when to laugh. When CBS executives saw the final product, they were horrified and believed the special would be a flop

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KOleG TIL all human males' paternal ancestor (their father's father's father...) converge on a single man who lived around 200 thousand years ago. The most divergent lineages are found in tribes in Cameroon, suggesting the man lived around there
lQQ5 TIL The Hindenberg, who’s crash heralded the disappearence of the zeppelins, was originally designed to use non-flammable helium (not hydrogen) but the US controlled the only Helium supplies and refused to export them.
vP0Yx TIL that Greek army was absent during the battle of Thermopylae in 1941, the pass was defended by Australian and New Zealand soldiers
dpeE TIL that Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based the book on his personal experience working for a chocolate factory in his youth, with giant elaborate machines and secretive practices as a result of spies and espionage attempts between competing factories.
dap8 TIL the rating on the IMDB page for This is Spinal Tap goes to 11