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TIL in the late 1990's Activsion offered Tony Hawk $500,000 for his name rights in the Tony Hawk video game franchise. Tony Hawk turned down the offer & the video games went on to generate over $1.4 billion in sales worldwide.

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QMk6 TIL: The first battle of the Civil War took place on Wilmer McLean’s farm. He moved to get away from the violence, but 4 years later Lee would surrender to Grant in his new house. His quote: “The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.”
XEoER TIL that the creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, only started to get royalties from his creation in 1996 when he formed "The Tetris Company." He created Tetris in 1984.
m1WPO TIL that in its first appearance at the Olympics, Suriname was represented by a single athlete, a runner who missed his event for arriving late to the heat after being given wrong information about the time.
7rykZ TIL Reflector telescopes can have varying focal ratios to keep the optical tube size manageable. The largest privately owned reflector telescope has a 75” mirror, is mounted on a trailer and is pulled by a truck
LQVRP TIL helicopter stunt pilot Cliff Flemming was contracted by NASA to capture the Genesis probe that was intended to land in the Utah desert. But the parachute failed to deploy and it crashed.