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TIL on April 1, 1980, BBC news ervice “reported” that the Big Ben will get a digital readout, and that the clock hands will be given to the first four listeners to call. Later on, BBC received a massive amount of phone calls from angry protestors, and ended up spending several days to apologize.

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WP5o TIL A man faked his death to make his wife realise how much she missed him. He left his clothes on the beach and placed an anonymous call to police to say he’d just seen a naked man walk into the sea. But he was soon discovered and his wife filed for divorce after learning about the prank.
MeLxa TIL that Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company"), the American oil subsidiary of the Chevron Corporation, illegally supplied oil on credit to Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War and also shipped oil to Germany to support the Nazis during World War II.
v18nB TIL about Data Rot, a phenomena where stored data can gradually corrupted as the time goes on. This is why newly installed OS' are faster, and why they seem to slow down over time.
y0Vp TIL Orlando, a ginger cat, competed and won against stock-picking professionals at the stock market. The cat picked at random, while the professionals used traditional stock-picking methods. At the end of the year, the cat had £542.60 profit, compared to the professionals’ £176.60 profit.
b97r7 TIL the only band to turn down touring with David Bowie was the one and only Kraftwerk in 1976.