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TIL that in 1845, the screw-driven HMS Rattler proved the superiority of screw propellers over paddle wheels by winning a 100-mile race against the paddle-driven HMS Alecto. Rattler then towed Alecto backward at almost 3 knots in a tug-of-war, leading to the rise of screw propulsion in ship design.

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ADvBB TIL Frankenstein's monster as a character is public domain, as the novel was written in 1818, but the visual portrayal most people are familiar with (greenish skin, square-ish head, bolts in the neck, etc.) is the intellectual property of Universal Studios, as it originated in the 1931 film.
G047 TIL of billionaire pastor, Edir Macedo, who is accused of using $2 billion in donations intended for charity overseas from his poor followers to buy jewelry, TV stations, and other businesses for himself
d6ed TIL studies have shown that dry counties have higher drunk driving fatalities than wet counties. Researchers believe that dry county residents will go to neighboring wet counties, get intoxicated, then have to drive back further while drunk.
5LKk TIL the US flew nearly 40 billion dollars to Iraq in shrink-wrapped $100 bills, then distributed the cash with no accounting for where it ended up
QGlX TIL that it is a myth that Albert Einstein failed maths as a student: “Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus”