› added 5 years ago

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TIL that although being a famous runaway wedding destination the Scottish town of Gretna Green has the dubious honour of holding the worst rail disaster in British History. With the precise death toll never established (but believed to be 226) those killed were mainly heading for Gallipoli.

b68o9 TIL the first top prize winner on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire never used any of his lifelines until the last question where he used the "Phone a Friend" lifeline. He phoned his father not to ask for help but to tell him that he was about to become a millionaire.
PYgEw TIL the noble gas Xenon can be used as a near perfect general anesthetic. It works fast, has minimal side effects, protects your brain, is environmentally friendly, and can be used at normal air pressure. The only downside is it's expensive and can't be synthesized.
X1w8 TIL because he was too big to fit on the bus, Andre the Giant was driven to school by his neighbor. That neighbor was Samuel Beckett.
wNO8 TIL in 1983, 50 corporations controlled most of the American media, including magazines, books, music, news feeds, newspapers, movies, radio and television. By 1992 that number had dropped by half. By 2000, six corporations had ownership of most media, and today five dominate the industry.
dD7ZK TIL that cartoonist Charles Schulz wanted to call his comic strip "Li'l Folks", but had to use the title "Peanuts" instead for trademark reasons. He always hated the name, which he described as "miserable", and he complained that "it has no dignity and it's not descriptive".