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TIL “It’s a Wonderful Life” only became popular because tv stations could play it for free during Christmas season.

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yQJAa TIL During WW2, because Ireland remained neutral during the conflict, many Irish soldiers deserted and joined Britain's military to fight the Nazis. Ireland deprived these soldiers of pension, unemployment benefits, and public sector jobs (for 7 years) as punishment.
VMRrk TIL that the first attempt to make an accurate world map was by an astrologer (Claudius Ptolemy, second century CE) so that he could chart the relationship between the person's birthplace and the heavenly bodies. While doing so, he coined the term "geography"
jBOv TIL Lactose Tolerance (lactase persistence) is the mutation, not the other way around
vaQ4 TIL King George V’s physician gave the dying king a lethal dosage of morphine and cocaine to hasten his death so that it could be announced in the morning edition of The Times rather than “less appropriate evening journals”
xVaMg TIL that after a screening of Pink Floyd The Wall, Steven Spielberg turned to the head of Warner Brothers and said “What the fuck was that?”