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TIL "the Blight" - a plague that destroyed all plant life in the movie Interstellar - was somewhat based on Raoultella planticola bacterium which in the 1990s was genetically modified to destroy plants and had potential to cause mass extinction

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8anL8 TIL in 1802, Timothy Dexter wrote ‘A Pickle for the Knowing Ones’ that had 8,847 words without punctuation or capitalization. In the second edition, he responded to grammatical complaints by adding an extra 11 pages of punctuation instructing that readers could insert them wherever needed.
QNdja TIL during the Super Bowl in 1992 FOX aired a live episode of "In Living Color” at halftime to steal viewers from CBS. It was so successful that the NFL got Michael Jackson to perform the next year. Prior to 1993 halftime shows usually had themes such as "Winter Magic" or "Be Bop Bamboozled"
wDWW TIL that grunting in tennis is punishable by losing a point to the opponent. This is because some player’s grunts, like Maria Sharapova’s, whose grunt is nearly equal to that of a lion’s roar, can affect how the opponent returns the ball.
oBbXo TIL that in 1985 The Beastie Boys supported Madonna for her debut tour, after her last song on the final show they came on stage and squirted her with water pistols.
8a0JV TIL Ed Sullivan asked Buddy Holly to not play his song “Oh Boy” on his show because it was too suggestive. Holly refused, so Sullivan mispronounced Holly’s name and cut the feed from his guitar. The band was still a huge hit. When asked back again, Holly said Sullivan didn’t have enough money.