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TIL that the best-selling Christmas song of all time, White Christmas, was written by a Jew whose own Christmas tradition was visiting the grave of his son who died on Christmas day in 1928 at the age of three weeks old. That son was Irving Berlin, Jr.

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Oov6Y TIL actors Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were temporarily blinded with 'burnt retinas' on the set of Twister (1996) by bright lamps used to make the sky look stormy.
78Gd7 TIL that German scientists in the 1930s were the first to conceive of the atom bomb, but their research was abruptly ended in 1939 when the government conscripted them. The Nazis never got close to making a functional atom bomb because their scientists were in the battlefield.
yQbVM TIL A Utah woman was allowed to sue herself over a car accident she caused, which killed her husband. She had to give evidence against herself to show that she was a fraudulent driver so she could seek compensation. It was her claim as a widow vs her claim as a motorist.
wLZM7 TIL that during World War 1, the Germans disguised one of their ships as a British ship, the RMS Carmania, and sent it out to ambush British vessels. In a hilariously bad stroke of luck, the first ship it encountered was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.
ANOkw TIL Reggae star Peter Tosh was brutally murdered in 1987. Three men with guns came to his house demanding money, then tortured him for several hours. Some of Tosh's friends arrived and were also taken hostage. They eventually opened fire, killing Tosh and one of his friends, wounding several others.