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TIL The original Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers series helped to inspire George Lucas's Star War series to include an "opening crawl," a signature device used in the opening sequence of every numbered film. Star Wars used the famous opening crawl, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

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X07OD TIL that Jack White of the White Stripes originally wanted to save the guitar riff used in "Seven Nation Army" for if he got the chance to make a James Bond theme song. 5 years after the song was released, he wrote the theme for the 2008 Bond film Quantum of Solace.
jNaEX TIL The CIA extracted 6 US diplomats from Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis using comic book artist Jack Kirby's concept art for a scrapped movie as a cover story when they convinced authorities they were part of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a movie titled Argo which was made up.
GAD4Q TIL The first modern supermarket, where customers could select their own items, was Piggly Wiggly, a chain opened in 1916. The founder Claurance Saunders, when asked why he chose that replied “So people will ask that very question.”
9Ym9B TIL that September 4th 1909, saw the first Boys Scout rally in Crystal Palace, South London. The gathering was organized by Baden-Powell & saw 11,000 boys in attendance. Amongst the thousands in attendance, a handful of girls crashed the event. Dressed in uniform, they called themselves Girl Scouts.
jNWQN TIL that before Europeans used the word "panther" for melanistic leopards and jaguars, it was a mythical animal, typically a big cat with a multicoloured hide. In heraldry it is depicted with coloured spots and flames coming from its mouth and ears, representing the sweet smelling odour of its roar.