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TIL In 1833, Britain used 40% of its national budget to buy freedom for all slaves in the Empire.

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N7bdJ TIL Blowing out birthday candles increases bacteria on cake by 1,400%
GYymQ TIL Home Alone was originally financed/produced by Warner Bros. When the budget grew from $13 million to $18 million and no confidence of success, WB dropped the film, which was then picked up by 20th Century Fox. The film grossed $476.7 million worldwide (of which $285.8 million were from America).
OGBZ7 TIL On July 26, 1931, a swarm of grasshoppers descended on Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota devastating millions of acres of crops. It was so thick that it blocked out the sun and one could shovel the grasshoppers with a scoop. Cornstalks were eaten to the ground and fields left completely bare.
7rEkX TIL that Rome was not the capital of the Western Roman Empire until its fall. The capital was moved to Mediolanum and Ravenna in the last centuries.
VE5Z TIL that a dog called Capitan has slept and rarely left his owners grave since he died 6 years ago. And no one never showed him the grave, he found it himself and refused to leave when close family tried to take him home