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TIL that a popular New Year’s Eve tradition in Germany is to watch a relatively obscure 18 minute British short called Dinner For One (1963) with 17 million people tuning in on 31st December 2016.

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vWm8 TIL the rotary phone was invented by an undertaker. The operator in his hometown was married to his competition, so the rotary dial was a way to bypass the human operator.
7nQP TIL we still don’t know who was sending anthrax-laden letters to senators and news media in 2001. Evidence against the top suspect is flimsy at best, and he died of apparent suicide in 2008.
7rdrZ TIL "Yankee Doodle" was written by the British to mock americans. "Doodle" is thought to come from the German "dödel", meaning "fool" or "simpleton" and "macaroni," a flamboyantly stylish type of dress, painting the Yankees as morons who thought placing a feather in one's cap made them a "dandy."
wAGJ TIL father of Behaviorism B.F. Skinner once successfully conditioned the hand movements of a distinguished psychologist who was in the middle of arguing against Skinner’s work
ne00B TIL about Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was kept captive for 19 yrs by her mother, Dee Dee, who faked medical conditions that her daughter had in order for her to be seen as a caregiver. Dee Dee is a classic Munchausen syndrome by proxy. After Gypsy had Dee Dee killed, she was sentenced 10yrs in prison