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TIL of the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire, a legend based on the reply the Cossacks wrote in response to the ultimatum delivered to them by the Ottoman Sultan; the Cossack's reply is filled with particularly vulgar rhymes.

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kODwg TIL Tarzan author E.R. Burroughs was the first author to attempt to license a fictional character across multi media platforms - books, comics, radio, movies, etc. Experts told him the various medias would compete against each other and fail. Instead it made him the wealthiest author in the US.
wLx5P TIL that in this famous photo of a man being executed in the Vietnam War, both the executioner and the executed have the exact same Family name: Nguyễn. The reason for the brutal summary execution was because he had slit the throats of a military leader and his entire family, all also named Nguyễn.
Lk14p TIL Osama Bin Laden was actually killed by the CIA, and he had a significant stash of Opium near by. In preparation for the raid, the Seal team was legally signed over to CIA control for legal protection, and all records are shielded from the Freedom of Information Act.
wmZP TIL that Christopher Nolan didn’t want to make TDKR following Heath Ledger’s death, but he agreed to make the movie if Warner Bros. allowed him free reign to make anything he wanted in the interim. The end result was Inception.
5Y1lQ TIL Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) is both the most expensive European and independent film ever made.