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TIL Robin Williams was interested for the role of Hagrid (Harry Potter) but was rejected due to the "all-British and Irish cast" policy

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VG6Q TIL that Mark Hamill is the same age today (63) as Sir Alec Guiness was when Star Wars was released in 1977.
oRO5W TIL the 1862 Greek referendum for the next head of state had write in ballots. 230,000 people voted for Prince Alfred, 480 voted "long live the great powers", 1,763 voted for "a king", 93 voted for "a republic" and Prince Ypsilantis, who died 30 years prior, got 6 votes, same as the eventual winner
N7XRP TIL that in 1980, nuclear physicist Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Seaborg's technique would have been far too expensive to enable routine manufacturing of gold, but his work was close to the mythical Philosopher's Stone.
XEA5E TIL that Comic Sans, a font widely regarded as silly and unprofessional, is one of the easiest fonts for dyslexic people to read
neoLo TIL Merck made a "hit list" of doctors who criticized Vioxx...The list, emailed between Merck employees, contained doctors' names with the labels "neutralise," "neutralised" or "discredit" next to them.