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TIL that James Bond creator Ian Fleming named one of his most famous villains, Auric Goldfinger, after the architect in revenge for his bulldozing of a number of Victorian villas in order to build his own modern home at Willow Road in Hampstead.

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508k TIL honeybees can recognize individual human faces.
9yMX TIL during the time of the devastating 2011 Joplin, MO tornado, a traveling circus was in town but couldn’t perform due to the weather. Instead, they enlisted the help of their circus elephants to remove damaged vehicles and heavy debris from the road to clear a path for first responders.
Bgx4k TIL that the world's largest uncut diamond, the "Cullinan", was found in South Africa in 1905 and weighed 3,106 carats. It was eventually cut into nine separate stones, two of which are part of the British Crown Jewels.
j58N TIL John Cleese of Monty Python has the unique distinction of having turned down both a life peerage (barony) and a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), saying he felt the honor was “silly.“
e0nAn TIL While shooting The Princess Bride, Andre the Giant racked up US$40,000 at the bar Hyatt in London, where he was staying. According to some estimates his average daily consumption of alcohol was a case of beer, three bottles of wine, and a couple of bottles of brandy.