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TIL at least 25,000 workers died during construction of the Panama Canal between 1881-1914. Construction was started by France and finished by the USA . The deaths are attributed to a combination of disease and injuries resulting from construction and environmental disruption.

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mRQy TIL there is a real life Professor Snape who teaches chemistry at the University of Nottingham
p8LaN TIL Indonesia is the world’s largest island nation it contains thousands and thousands of islands. Indonesia has so many islands it has never been able to fully count or name them. Indonesia is embarking on an ambitious island census to count the islands and registering their names.
YJlx TIL that if NYC were its own country, and the NYPD was its army, it would be the twentieth-best-funded army in the world, just behind Greece and just ahead of North Korea
EgErW TIL that Charles Best, who assisted Fredrick Banting in his discovery of insulin, was chosen as Banting's assistant by coin flip.
XEy5j TIL when Jerry Lewis taught film directing at USC in the late ‘60s, George Lucas was one of his students and Steven Spielberg audited some of his classes. Lewis later screened Spielberg's short film Amblin' (1968) and told his students, "That's what filmmaking is all about."