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18

TIL that Winston Churchill would have written John D. Rockefeller's biography, during the 1930s, but the Rockefellers withdrew their offer once Churchill demanded $250.000 for writing the biography of their patriarch.

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Z84OB TIL that Rage Agaisnt the Machine's song, Killing in the Name of, became the UK's Christmas number one song in 2009, 17 years after the initial release, all because of the fans.
MZgB TIL That the during the official opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 a man on horseback cut the ribbon with his sword, upstaging the senior politician who was supposed to cut it.
69PPQ TIL of the life of Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln, a Hungarian jew who was sucessively a Protestant missionary, Anglican priest, British Member of Parliament for Darlington, German right-wing politician and spy, Nazi collaborator, Buddhist abbot in China, and self-proclaimed Dalai Lama.
OoGPg TIL: On Dec. 25th, 1914, the first year of WW1 - Germans v British - Both sides crawled out of their trenches and met half way to play an innocent Christmas game of football/soccer as a display of truce. Germans beat the British 3-2 before resuming fighting the next day.
wLpxJ TIL of "Dogwood Winters" in which late April - early May cold snaps are common. Farmers would predict these by whether or not the Dogwood trees had bloomed, and use this to determine when it would be safe to plant their crops.