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TIL In 1774, Frederick the Great ordered Prussians to grow potatoes as protection against famine, but the populace were disgusted by them and refused. The king then planted “royal potato field” but allowed peasants to steal from it, which re-marketed the potato into a major food crop.

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e0Dv6 TIL: After the conclusion of the First World War, the French government declared a "Zone Rouge" deemed unfit for human habitation.
gN69 TIL $100,000,000 lawsuit claiming the film Sister Act was plagiarized from a book A Nun in the Closet. Disney offered $1,000,000 to settle of out court the but the plaintiffs declined. Eventually the judge found in favor of Disney and the other defendants, the plaintiffs got nothing.
v6XK TIL Billboards are illegal in Vermont
nWGGb TIL between 1969 and 1977, 95 African oryx (a type of large antelope) were released in southern New Mexico. There are now thousands of them in the state and that number continues go grow.
XEYNX TIL Cebu City is the busiest sea port in the Philippines and was also once a bustling commercial hub between Mexico and China. However, almost none of its long coastline contains beaches and it is instead occupied by industry, ports, slums and marshlands