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TIL that Johnny Marks, the man who wrote famous Christmas songs like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Rockin around the Christmas tree, and Holly Jolly Christmas, was Jewish.

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yVNge TIL Prince “as his symbol” was listed in the movie credits of Fargo (1996) as “Victim in the Field”. But was it really him? No…however the backstory of why he’s listed is pretty cool!
PY5EG TIL that the Byzantine emperor Basil II captured over 15,000 Bulgars. He ordered 99% of the prisoners to have both of their eyes gouged out, and left the 1% with one eye left to guide the others back to their king. This is how Basil earned the title "the Bulgar Slayer"
b4y9 TIL that for $12,500 (slightly more than average funeral costs) you can have your remains launched into deep space
wL4k8 TIL that for a short time, the planet Uranus was called George
Wkj7B TIL the Japanese Shinkansen train network opened in 1964 and consists of 1,717 miles of track with trains reaching 200 MPH or 320 KM/H. Over the Shinkansen’s 50 year history there have been over 5.6 billion riders & not a single death or injury due to accident.