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TIL in 1963 a 16 year old sent a four-question survey to 150 well-known authors (75 of which replied) in order to prove to his English teacher that writers don't intentionally add symbolic content to their books.

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WXnA TIL that Robert De Niro was so dedicated, to prepare for his roles, he actually gained 60 lbs for Raging Bull, lived in Sicily Italy for The Godfather Part II, ground his teeth for Cape Fear, became a cab driver for Taxi Driver, and learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York.
1VkX TIL that work on the first commercial home video game console began in 1966. There was a working prototype completed by 1968, and it was released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey.
v1ED8 TIL that during the Great Depression, the state of Arkansas was in such bad financial shape that the treasurer at one point reported a balance of $4.62 for the entire general revenue fund of the state.
4XNnN TIL Hotmail was originally stylized as HoTMaiL in reference to HTML-based email formatting, which was new at the time.
9X1X TIL that in Detroit in the 1930s, a baby fell from a high window and landed on a man who was passing the street below. The baby and the man both survived the incident. A year later, the SAME baby fell from the SAME window and landed on the SAME man, and they both survived.