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TIL about the rubber concession system in French Equatorial Africa. According to writer Adam Hochschild it led to a population reduction by 50%, similar to that in the CFS.

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yQMb8 TIL a license to sell Star Wars merchandise cost $750,000 dollars. Before the original film had even been released.
PAnG TIL On 31 December 1759 Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the St. James Gate brewery.
n6Pb TIL Elvis claimed that when he was 8 years old, he was telepathically contacted by two alien beings who showed him his future. Reportedly, the aliens showed Elvis an image of “a man in a white jumpsuit singing to a crowd,” but the eight year old Elvis didn’t understand what it meant.
b9de9 TIL there was an original ending in the film "Army of Darkness", where Bruce Campbell's character wakes up in a future where civilization is destroyed after miscalculating the number of potions needed to properly return to his own time. Universal Pictures rejected it as too depressing and negative.
DQOpg TIL that due to a bad hand cramp, Tina Weymouth was unable to play bass on the studio recording of the Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love". One of the studio engineers had to take her place.