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TIL Dumas based “The Count of Monte Cristo” on the real life story of a man who inherited a fortune while falsely imprisoned and then used the money to track down and murder the three men who accused him.

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eQ5n TIL that historically speaking, liberal arts studies were defined as skills that a free person should know; such as, “participating in public debate, defending oneself in court, serving on juries, and most importantly, military service.”
9YoYQ TIL Gulliver's Travels by Swift was largely changed by others in later editions from the original biting satire to remove a lot of the satirical tone and make it more passable for the general public's consumption. It was basically changed from political satire to a children's book.
OWy7 TIL During the WWII invasion of Normandy, a new Canadian tank gunner destroyed 3 tiger tanks with his first 5 shots in combat, including a famous German tank commander with over 130 kills. The Canadian tanker’s only prior experience was firing a half dozen tank rounds during training.
0w90N TIL that dogs can suffer under the "Happy Tail Syndrome", when they wag their tails out of happiness so hard and often that it gets injured
69yX TIL: that Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Jason Patric, Keanu Reeves and John Travolta were considered for the role of Jim Morrison in the movie “The Doors” - Travolta was so popular with the original band that they even considered putting the band back together with Travolta on vocals.