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TIL the first drinking straw was designed to have a diameter slightly smaller than the typical lemon pip, as the inventor was tired of getting lemon seeds in his mouth when drinking lemonade.

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QRQk TIL In 1996, the BBC applied to register the TARDIS as a trademark and were challenged by the Metropolitan Police. The courts found no evidence that any police force had ever registered the image as a trademark. The courts ruled in BBCs favour.
mxG5o TIL About Abbie Sweetwine, an African American Nurse who helped save passengers in Britain's largest peacetime accident, Harrow & Wealdstone
XE1Q6 TIL that loofah sponges come from luffa plants; a species of gourd with edible fruits. Once dried and peeled they reveal a matrix of tough fibrous tissues inside that act as wonderful natural sponges
oBLJA TIL of Alfred Nakache, a Jewish-French swimmer who held the 200m men’s breaststroke record, was deported to Auschwitz where his wife and daughter were murdered, yet came back to compete in the 1948 London Olympics
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