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TIL that the 1972 Novel “The Day of the Jackal” showcased an easy method of obtaining a fraudulent British passport, which was later used by the IRA and the KGB. This loophole went unclosed until 2007, and may have resulted in up to 1,500 fake passports being issued each year.

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j6Pep TIL that 8 of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence were born in the British Isles
Me9dB TIL The only copies of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Beowulf" are unique manuscripts that came from the same private library -- both were nearly destroyed in a fire in 1731,
R5bJ1 TIL that before Salman Rushdie became an author, he came up with the slogan "Naughty, but nice" for British cream cake adverts.
vPYd7 TIL: The Crown (2021), Schitt's Creek (2020) and Angels in America (2003) are the only programs to win all seven of their respective major Emmy categories in one year - directing, writing, all four acting categories and overall series.
ek16 TIL the X’s that you often see on the sides old moonshine jugs in cartoons and popular media actually signified how many times that particular batch had gone through the still, being that the basic pot-stills of yesteryear required you to distill the mash several times before you got pure alcohol.