› added 11 years ago

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TIL George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and 'Animal Farm’ have together sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author.

kOlYW TIL Though the royal figures on modern playing cards do not represent actual people, names were assigned to them: Charlemagne (hearts), David (spades), Caesar (diamonds), and Alexander (clubs). The names of the queens — Judith or Judic (hearts), Pallas (spades), Rachel (diamonds), and Argine (clubs)
QVXX TIL that while George Harrison was being treated for a brain tumor in Switzerland, Ringo Starr went to visit him, but had to cut his stay short to go to Boston where his daughter was undergoing brain surgery. Harrison immediately asked Starr if he should go to Boston with him.
5YmjB TIL 72 Chinese billionaires died between 2003 and 2011. 15 were murdered, 17 committed suicide, 7 died from accidents, 14 were executed according to the law, and 19 died from diseases.
e0o0D TIL in 2018, a firefighter in Massachusetts was reprimanded when he received a call from a concerned cat owner about their pet being stuck in a tree and he responded with, “I’m sure they’ll make their way down eventually. I’ve never seen a cat skeleton in a tree before.”
DQY8D TIL about the SS Île de France, the last civilian ship to leave France before the outbreak of WWII. It successfully transported 1,777 passengers fleeing from France to New York; while crossing the Atlantic, 16 other vessels were sunk by torpedoes, mines, or gunfire.