› added 8 months ago

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TIL that in 52 BC, during the Battle of Alesia, Julius Caesar trapped both the Gallic forces inside and outside the city by building dual lines of fortifications. Despite their larger numbers, the Gauls were crushed, leading to a decisive Roman victory and the end of the Gallic Wars.

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Ynjd TIL that after needing 13 liters of blood for a surgery at the age of 13, a man named James Harrison pledged to donate blood once he turned 18. It was discovered that his blood contained a rare antigen which cured Rhesus disease. He has donated blood a record 1,000 times and saved 2,000,000 lives.
mxOgE TIL cocktails became popular during Prohibition as juices were added to bootleg liquor to disguise the taste of ingredients like dead rat and wood tar
xV5Xw TIL Rory McCann ('The Hound', Game of Thrones) was incredibly anti-social until he learned that fellow actors in the show's group, the 'Brotherhood Without Banners' (Thoros, Lord Beric) were musicians, and formed a band called 'Brotherhood Without Banjos' with them.
OGDLX TIL actor Andrew Garfield bagged The Amazing Spider-Man role due to an unreleased scene of him eating a cheeseburger and telling Gwen Stacy to calm down. The way he ate the food was described by the film’s director Marc Webb as something “I just hadn’t seen before” and that it worked.
6E5pY TIL about a shortage of dwarf actors to play the Oompa Loompas in 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory', as the Nazis had killed most of the dwarves during WW2.