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TIL that the famous "Here's Johnny" line from The Shining was copied from The Johnny Carson Show. Jack Nicholson improvised the line and Stanley Kubrick almost used a different take as he didn't get the reference, having been living in England

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grODL TIL that many Union veterans of the US Civil War worked in the marketing campaign for the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, canvassing to sell subscriptions to the book that the dying and destitute general wrote to provide an income to his family. Grant's memoirs became a bestseller of the 19th Century.
8eEpV TIL George Picquart, an anti-semitic French army officer, helped to convict fellow officer Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, of treason. Subsequently promoted to lead the secret intelligence service, he then discovered and exposed the conspiracy that had framed Dreyfus, eventually toppling the government.
oBbY8 TIL about potash evaporation ponds in the Utah desert. Depending on the amount of potash inside the pools, they can turn turquoise, orange, yellow and even white. About 700 - 1000 tons of potash are produced very day, which can then be used to fertilize plants and treat industrial water.
nekRb TIL that the word radar is actually an acronym for "radio detection and ranging."
5Y5Vr TIL that the half life of Bismuth is over a billion times the estimated age of the universe