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TIL that Microsoft Encarta (original codename “Gandalf”) began as a pet project for Bill Gates around 1985 after being rejected by Encyclopaedia Britannica as a partner in making material available to PC users as a CD-ROM. Encarta’s eventual demise in 2009 was widely attributed to Wikipedia

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MeVna TIL Abraham Lincoln was once challenged to a duel by a political adversary. Lincoln accepted. Instead of pistols Lincoln chose swords instead of pistols. Friends intervened and it ended bloodlessly. Lincoln and his opponent laughed it off as being silly and became lifelong friends.
v16w8 TIL Tommy Lee Jones is a successful coffee commercial actor in Japan
NXQg6 TIL American Civil War-era politician Clement Vallandigham died trying to defend a man accused of murder in a bar, who claimed he had accidentally discharged a pistol. Vallandigham attempted to demonstrate what happened... and accidentally shot himself with the pistol.
nWlAB TIL that British Royalty used to place Wax or Wood figures of the deceased on top of their coffin before burial and for display afterward in Westminster Abbey. More than 20 of these funeral effigies, dating back to Edward III from 1377, remain and are on display at the Westminster Abbey Museum.
kJr74 TIL every bite of cheese you eat contains over a trillion bacteria.