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TIL In 1966 the Spanish army built an enormous cemetery in Burgos for the final scene of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The graveyard now hosts 4,500 graves bearing the names of the living people who each donated €15 towards the 2018 restoration of the cemetery to its original movie set condition.

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M7K5W TIL about “Franco’s hajj”. A program instituted by the fascist dictator of Spain General Francisco Franco to sponsor Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in a bid to court the Islamic World. The program lasted for several decades.
69LdZ TIL the version of "Earth Angel" by The Penguins that became an unexpected hit had only been recorded by the band as a literal garage demo; drums on the track were muffled with pillows so as to not overwhelm the vocals. A neighbour's pet dog stopped many takes by barking.
OovJ6 TIL that in 2008 was discovered the Sputnik virophage, a virus that infects other viruses, the first known case of hyperparasitodoism between viruses.
m1NAE TIL North Korea is obsessed with Choco Pies from S Korea. There's a black market for them, and factories once used them to pay worker bonuses. In 2014, S Korean activists sent 10K pies to NK with helium balloons. After an injured NK defector crossed the DMZ in 2017, he was given a lifetime supply.
PY1eJ TIL J.K Rowling invented Quidditch while in a pub.