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TIL Pepsi ran an advertisement promising a Harrier jet to anyone who collected 7,000,000 Pepsi Points, a gag that backfired when a participant attempted to take advantage of the ability to buy additional points for 10 cents each to claim a jet for $700,000.

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wDy8 TIL the white Australian silver-medalist, who stood with the two African-American sprinters giving the “black power” salute in the 1968 Olympics, was wearing a Civil Rights button to stand in solidarity with them and did so for the rest of his life despite being ostracized in his own country.
woyk8 TIL Shogun Tokugawa leyasu decreed William Adams(first western samurai) was dead and that Miura Anjin, a samurai, was born. This action "freed" Adams to serve the Shogunate permanently, making Adams' wife in England a widow. Adams managed to send regular support payments to her after 1613.
QJKZE TIL the lead singer of Toto is the son of legendary composer John Williams
XEwBQ TIL 8-yr-old Saga Vanecek found a 1,500-yr-old sword when wading in a lake in Sweden. She pointed it up to the sky and called out, “Daddy, I’ve found a sword!” She was bummed when her dad made her give the sword to the local museum and said she was raising money to make a sword replica for herself.
b96a4 TIL When Tim Schafer, co-designer of Secret of Monkey Island was being interviewed for LucasArts, he said he was a big fan of LucasArts' game "Ballblaster". The interviewer told him the game was named "Ballblazer" and only the pirated copies were named "Ballblaster"