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TIL: In France, there is a law that movies cannot appear on streaming services until 3 YEARS after they've been shown in cinemas

9wVwX TIL The Germans started shooting their bullets backwards in response to the British using tanks. These reversed bullets were blunt and thus wouldn't be as easily deflected, denting armor and spitting fragments at the crew.
ybZ8 TIL Christian Bale saw Tom Cruise on the Late Show with David Letterman while preparing for his role in American Psycho. Cruise’s “intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes” became the inspiration for how Bale would portray the psychopathic murderer.
PY5OV TIL After Richard Nixon’s landmark trip to China in 1972, the couple were gifted a pair of Pandas by then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. This gift created a new sensation among Zoos, and Toy makers, even gracing Time magazine. In return, the U.S. government sent China a pair of musk oxen.
R5Kp7 TIL that in baseball's early days, fielders could put base runners out not only by tagging them but also by throwing the ball at them before they reached a base. This practice was known as "plugging," "patching," or "soaking" and was considered essential for the "manliness" of the game.
VM1mm TIL Sometime around 1500 A.D., an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. Today, maize accounts for more than half the calories people consume in many African countries. Maize supplanted Africa’s own historical grain crops—sorghum, millet, and rice