› added 4 years ago

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TIL UK's highest-paid entertainer in WW2, George Formby, went to Normandy after the landings, & gave 9 shows to frontline troops who’d held out for 56 days without relief, his audience in foxholes. He also crawled through trenches to tell jokes when the enemy was too close for a show.

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PYB1G TIL That the continent of Antarctica was originally going to be called Australia, until the colonial authorities in Sydney took the name for their continent. After that Antarctica had no official name for over 80 years until the 1890s. It was just referred to as the Antarctic Continent.
R7nX8 TIL There has been an officially-appointed (by Prime Minister) Wizard of New Zealand since 1990.
R7QP9 TIL that Dog the Bounty Hunter met Beth Chapman, his late wife, when he posted her bond after she shoplifted a lemon.
jNdGa TIL there is a German hospital that specializes in treatment for traumatized train drivers. An average of 3 people in Germany kill themselves by jumping in front of a train every day.
BgEke TIL about the "Scaptia beyonceae", an Australian horsefly named after Beyoncé