› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the first independent full-length film written and directed by Steven Spielberg was called "Firefight," (inspired Close Encounters) made on a budget of $500, which then 16 year old Spielberg borrowed from his father. It was shown at a local cinema one evening and it earned back its cost.

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Wkbj4 TIL that, In 2018 a federal court judge from Michigan struck down ban on Islamic Female Genital mutilation in USA and dropped charges on accused who mutilated at least nine underage girls. Claiming "Congress did not have the right to criminalize the practice of Female Genital Mutilation"
e0Lrn TIL the plans for Winston Churchill's state funeral had to be revised several times because Churchill outlived several intended pallbearers.
6Em5Y TIL I learned that the boy with the spoon from matrix was credited "Spoon boy"
Zp5eG TIL In 1932 Sprinter Liu Changchun became the first athlete to represent China in competition at an Olympic Games. Liu's life was made into the 2008 film "The One Man Olympics"
ep0Xb TIL the famous Saigon evacuation helicopter photo at the end of the Vietnam War was not from the US embassy, but from the roof of an apartment building that housed senior CIA personnel.