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TIL: Shrek was a book (1990) before it was a movie (2001)

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via reddit.com

8eQj4 TIL Aristotle's History of Animals contains several facts that were deemed fantasy until the 19th century. Such observations include octopuses having a sperm tentacle and dogfish growing inside their mother's body. The book also has obvious errors like assuming flies have four legs.
9w0ZM TIL during the negotiations to end the Spanish-American War, Spain originally rejected the US demand for the whole of the Philippines and wanted to cede only Mindanao or the Sulu Islands. US negotiators responded by proposing to pay $20 million for the whole of the Philippines, which Spain accepted.
pEjb TIL that conditions seemed so bleak in America during the Great Depression that people in Cameroon sent $3.77 to New York for food relief
Lk1j9 TIL during prohibition, merchants would sell "bricks" of grape concentrate with a label that warned consumers not to mix the concentrate with yeast, water, and sugar and age the mixture for seven days, because "an illegal alcoholic beverage will result".
oRedo TIL the average male height in the US is 69.420 inches tall aka 5'9"