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TIL actor Omar Sharif helped popularize the card game bridge via new technologies and big stakes, and was once one of the world’s top players. In 2000, he stopped, stating his passion had become an addiction.

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4XKXg TIL that film director Akira Kurosawa hired expert archers to shoot real arrows at Toshiro Mifune while he dodged them in choreographed movements. Mifune’s visible terror is quite real.
Gjn1 TIL: Irene Triplett, an 86-year-old daughter of a Civil War veteran, still collects her father’s pension of $73.13 a month. That war ended in 1865.
8aQn8 TIL while filming The Prisoner of Azkaban, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, and Alfonso Cuarón hid a fart machine in Daniel Radcliffe's sleeping bag.
b8x7 TIL that the reason today’s artificial banana flavoring for candy tastes so differently than an actual banana is because it is based on the Gros Michel Banana, which was nearly wiped out in the 50’s due to a fungus. The bananas we eat today are from the Cavendish family.
Lmep TIL at the Sanjusangendo Temple in Japan there is an annual competition to fire as many arrows through the temple as possible in 24 hours. The arrows can’t hit the floor, walls or the ceiling. The current record is 8133 successful shots out of 13,053 shots, set in 1686.