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TIL Theaters used to hire people to attend shows to clap, cry, or laugh at the right moments in order to influence the audience’s reactions

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b9BnZ TIL in England in 1858, a confectioner making peppermint lozenges tried to purchase harmless powdered gypsum from a local pharmacist but was accidentally sold 12 pounds of arsenic trioxide. 21 people died and more than 200 others became ill when the poisoned candy was unwittingly sold to the public.
Em5w TIL of the Queen’s Champion. During the coronation banquet, the Champion would ride into Westminster Hall in full armor and await any challenger to the throne. The current Queen’s Champion is a chartered accountant.
Y7VaW TIL that the Giotto spacecraft, whose aim was to study Halley's comet as it passed close to Earth in 1986, takes its name from the Italian painter Giotto di Bondone, who in 1305 depicted the star of Bethlehem as a comet in painting his Adoration of the Magi. Halley passed close to Earth in 1301.
OrrX TIL: The Lord of the Rings Director, Peter Jackson, orchestrated 20,000 cricket fans during a game’s inning breaks in order to produce the sound of the Uruk-hai army in The Two Towers.
QJw96 TIL that in 2015 authorities in Germany seized a World War Two tank which was being kept in a senior's basement. The Panther tank was removed from the 78-year-old's house in the town of Heikendorf, along with a variety of other military equipment, including a torpedo and an anti-aircraft gun.