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TIL that in 1957, "Babycham" was the first alcoholic product to be advertised on British commercial television. The drink is a sparkling alcoholic cider made from pears, and was marketed as a "genuine champagne perry".

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R57jl TIL about the Financial Modeling World Cup, which is essentially the World Cup for Competitive excel users. Participants solve real-life case studies by building financial models in Microsoft Excel. $25,000 prize fund.
e0kd5 TIL a lawyer used his will for practical jokes. He gave a house to 3 men who hated each other, stocks in a brewery to preachers, shares of a racetrack to each ministers "except Spracklin, who shot a hotelkeeper", and gave the rest to whoever had the most kids in 10 years.
loKRK TIL in 1887 a reporter named Nellie Bly talked her way into an insane asylum in New York and published her experience after ten days in the asylum. She claimed many of the patients seemed completely sane and the conditions were horrid. This led to NYC budgeting $1,000,000 to care of the insane.
7rp4b TIL on the set of The Princess Bride, André the Giant once "let out a 16 second fart and brought production to a standstill." Nobody said anything except director Rob Reiner, who said "Are you OK, André?" to which André replied, "I am now boss."
gxnW TIL: Before the Terracotta army, when chinese emperors died all their servants were killed to aid them in the afterlife. Building the terracotta army spared emperor Qin from killing more than 8000 people.