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TIL Quebec has over 300,000 backyard pools, more than anywhere else in North America per capita (including California). Montreal and surrounding area add an average of 3,500 backyard pools per year

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KYBM4 TIL that the emperor Caligula exploited his descent from both Augustus and Mark Antony as a pretext to punish a senator for commemorating the victory of the former over the latter at the Battle of Actium
9mw6 TIL that Thomas & Friends was not the first television adaption of the Railway Series - in 1953, the BBC commisioned a live adaption of “The Sad Story of Henry” During broadcast, a failure to switch the points caused the model of Henry to derail and a human hand to reach out and re-attach it.
9wxGr TIL: Engineers were given 10 weeks to develop the GBU-28 bunker buster to penetrate Saddam's troops which were buried 30-50 feet deep. In testing the weapon managed to bury itself over 100 feet deep, so deep that the expense in digging it up could not be justified and was deployed immediately after.
QWWp TIL that “nice”, when first used in English, meant “foolish, stupid, senseless”. It came through early French from the Latin nescius, meaning “ignorant”, literally “not-knowing”.
NxZe TIL that The Writers and Directors Guilds of America fined George Lucas $250,000 and tried to have Star Wars V pulled from theatres because he put the credits at the end of the movie rather than the beginning; a highly unusual choice at the time.