› added 4 years ago

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TIL that in 1994 the Prince of Wales landed a BAE-146 aircraft carrying 11 people at Islay Airport in Scotland. The Prince overshot the runway and crashed.

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4XRNN TIL Universal Studios, United Artists, and Disney rejected to get involved with "Star Wars" due to budget concerns or believing it wouldn't succeed due to being too strange. Only 20th Century Fox agreed because they wanted to form relations with George Lucas after his success of "American Graffiti".
oAoK TIL that in the Victorian era, “ornamental hermits” were old men who lived in hobbit-like cottages in the gardens of wealthy people. These hermits were encouraged to dress like druids, and they would make scheduled appearances in front of their employee’s guests
ne4wd TIL that the Dutch East India Company paid its investors an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years.
QVVE TIL helium is a finite resource and one of the few elements that escapes gravity and leaks away into space when released.
R7LZQ TIL that despite the Seven Years' War between Britain and France, France instructed its ships not to interfere with the Endeavour's expedition to Tahiti to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus as, it was ‘out on enterprises of service to all mankind'.