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TIL That in the 1990s Namco was granted a general patent for providing an auxiliary game (like Galaxian) during a loading screen, meaning that kids across the planet have spent millions of combined hours staring at loading screens thanks to Namco

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a8YKA TIL that in the 1860s when the US was in Civil War, the French Emperir Napoleon III tried to place an Emperor in Mexico. After th US Civil War ended, members of the conservative Confederacy went into Mexico to support the Emperor while the rest of the US supplied arms to the liberal resistance.
jN9Jv TIL that "Budweiser" in German means "of Budweis", however American Budweiser is unrelated to the Budweiser made in Budweis for hundreds of years
ZpKwB TIL that the city of Philadelphia, which was where Washington had to live when he was president, had laws in place that said any slave that lived there for more than 6 months would be freed. So, Washington set up a rotational schedule exchanging his slaves between states to prevent their freedom.
Vewp TIL Most greenland sharks are blind due to a 3cm long parasite that latches onto their eye. The sharks have not evolved a defence because the parasite is bioluminescent and is theorised to attract prey to the shark’s head
mJAO TIL that four American soldiers defected to North Korea during the Korean War, hoping for a better life than the one that waited for them back in the US. One of these men is still alive.