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TIL about the Lord of the Rings musical, which had nearly 500 performances and a 13 month run in London’s West end before closing in 2008. It received mostly negative reviews and was considered a flop.

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jNJxa TIL the term “mark” originated from the carnival. When dishonest game operators found someone they could entice to keep playing their rigged game, they would "mark" the player by patting their back with a hand that had chalk on it. Other carnies would then keep an eye out for rubes with chalk marks.
PpdE TIL 70% of African-American children and 58% of Hispanic children do not know how to swim. TIL African-American children drown at a rate nearly three times higher than white children.
b9YYQ TIL During times of war and other crises in Britain, men with seafaring experience would be taken against their will by press gangs to become part of the Royal Navy crew. Sometimes they were taken in the middle of the street and would find themselves trapped on a ship and with no hope of escape.
0KK1 TIL that the USSR renamed its rocket base Baikonur in 1961 to keep the Soviet space program a secret. Residents of the original Baikonur, hundreds of km away, took advantage of the resulting confusion by ordering many valuable supplies for themselves before the scam was discovered.
16Q8D TIL about the Pascaline, a mechanical calculator invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642 to help his father, who was supervisor of taxes in Rouen. The Pascaline added and subtracted two numbers, and multipled and divided through series of additions or substractions