› added 5 years ago

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TIL: Laugh tracks were the invention of a sound engineer named Charles Douglass, whose Laff Box machine helped him corner the market during the golden age of TV.

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78opX TIL you can die eating a diet of rabbits without another source of fat because they are so lean. It's called protein poisoning, aka Rabbit Starvation.
w958 TIL sporting goods company Wilson was started in 1913 as a way to use animal by-products from New York slaughterhouses. Its first products were strings for tennis rackets and violins
jNbnX TIL that in 2003, there was a movement in America to rename the "French" part of French Fries, French Toast, etc, to "Freedom" (Freedom Fries, etc) after France refused to support the Iraqi war - Demonstrators even included government officials in Congress.
oyyA TIL during the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet losses were so great that at times the life expectancy of a newly arrived soldier was less than a day, and the life expectancy of a Soviet officer was three days. Combat was so fierce, at one point a railway station changed hands 14 times in six hours.
VMbm TIL that the Olympics asked for drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978, to perform at this year’s closing ceremony.