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TIL The FIFA World Cup trophy is the most valuable sporting award, worth a staggering $20,000,000.

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vYk4 TIL the “french” in french fries actually describes the way the spuds are sliced, not their country of origin.
VBJl8 TIL that John Lennon once mistook a nativity scene outside a house with a bunch of men playing poker on a midnight stroll home from Paul McCartney's house. He wasn't wearing his glasses at the time
kJ4eW TIL when the automatic telephone exchange was invented in the 1890s, it was advertised as providing a "girl-less, cuss-less, out-of-order-less, wait-less telephone" experience to contrast it with manual telephone exchanges operated by women
R5lw1 TIL that John Lennon was not the only Beatle to suffer a violent attack. George Harrison was attacked by a mentally disturbed man at his house in 1999, suffering 40 stab wounds. He was saved when his wife incapacitated the attacker by striking him repeatedly with a fireplace poker.
ZpmKB TIL that the reason mint tastes cold is that menthol activates a protein called TRPM8 in your nerve cells that normally respond to cold. It is the only food that does do. (Although capsaicin, similarly, activates a different protein, VR1, that senses heat.)