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TIL that when James Avery auditioned for the part of Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, he had no idea who Will Smith was. When he entered the room, Smith had his feet on a table and his hat on sideways. Avery told him to put his feet down and turn around his hat. He got the part.

kKQE TIL a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Blood and Fire”, was written but never produced due to its positive depiction of an openly gay couple, and focus on “Regulan bloodworms” intended to be a metaphor for the public’s fear of AIDS
yQMop TIL the tale generally considered to be the first detective story is Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," in 1841. The story describes the extraordinary analytical power used by Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris.
Z0nY TIL Scotland once tried to become a colonial power. The colony failed so spectacularly that it became a large factor in Scotland becoming part of the United Kingdom.
69mrX TIL if you have blurry vision and stare at a dim point-source light in a dark room, focusing on the irregularities in the blurry circle of light, you will see microscopic solid and liquid particulates in your eye. This is an entoptic phenomenon. (see desc)
e1XJ TIL: Two Bell Lab Employees ( aka AT&T ) found a “noise” while testing a new horn radio, unable to discover the source they pointed radio to space and found the same “white noise”, this led to the accidental discovery of Cosmic Background Radiation that confirmed the Big Bang Theory.