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TIL At the 1829 Rainhill trials John Ericsson and John Braithwaite's Novelty was the fastest of the locomotives, traveling up to 45km/h, but a series of breakdowns led to George and Robert Stephenson's slower but consistent Rocket winning the prize.

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W7eQ8 TIL 'Michael' was the most frequently given male name every year between 1954-1998 except for 1960 (David) and it fell out of the top five in 2011 for the first time since 1949.
69p7 TIL that a Uranium deposit in Africa naturally developed criticality and produced fission power for hundreds of thousands of years. It was a “natural nuclear reactor”.
M7Ea TIL Nokia made a handheld game console in 2003, the N-Gage. In the first two weeks, Nokia claimed to have sold 400,000 units, but researchers later found they had only actually sold 5,800~ units in total.
epxo4 TIL Mountain Dew was originally created as a moonshine mixer. The soda received its name for the slang used for "mountain-brewed" moonshine: Mountain Dew
5YGW9 TIL: If your kids want to have a lemonade stand in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, the sign must be in English and French, as well 7% of the profits must be donated to charity.