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TIL about Raoul Whitfield, one of the earliest American hardboiled detective fiction writers. Close friends with Dashiell Hammett, he was briefly married to New York socialite Emily Davies Vanderbilt Thayer and created the character Jo Gar, a Spanish-Filipino detective in Manila.

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4XaZo TIL the idea for the Guinness Book of World Records was conceived when Sir Hugh Beaver (Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery) attended a party in Ireland in the early 1950s, where he and his hosts argued about the fastest game bird in Europe* and failed to find an answer in any reference book.
OoW7Y TIL the Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India that was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1629. Of the 301 passengers who survived the wreck approximately 125 were murdered following a mutiny, including women, children and infants.
J1v4v TIL that Confederados are the descendants of supporters of the Confederate States of America who immigrated to the Empire of Brazil at the invitation of Emperor Pedro II after the end of the American Civil War.
DQeBD TIL that the film version of the musical "In the Heights" nearly wasn't produced because Universal wanted a bankable star in the cast. While the film was in limbo, its writer Lin-Manuel Miranda went on vacation and bought a copy of Ron Chernow's "Hamilton", which inspired the show
e0k0J TIL the airport in which "The Terminal" was shot was a massive failure. Traffic predictions were grossly overestimated, the highways to link it to Montréal were never built and its terminal was insulated with asbestos. It hasn't received passengers since 2004 and the terminal was destroyed in 2016.