› added 12 years ago

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TIL Wrigley’s was originally founded as a baking powder selling company, adding free chewing gums to it’s packaging. The gum became more popular than the original product and the company decided to focus on the gums only.

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N7gA6 TIL about Derek Paravicini, an autistic, blind, and severely mentally handicapped piano savant. He can play, transpose, and improvise on nearly any song he has ever heard despite his disabilities.
nWkw9 TIL a long-lost model of an X-Wing starfighter that was used in the climactic battle scene of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope sold for $3.1 million last year to become the most expensive Star Wars screen-used prop sold at auction. It's 1 of 4 known "hero" models that were made for closeup shots.
oVY8 TIL Kim Jong Ils official biography listed, among his achievements, a 38 shot round of golf, ability to control weather, he never needed to poop and was credited with inventing the hamburger.
kJ7ZW TIL about Patti Lyle Collins, head of the US Dead Letter Office. She was known for her ability to deciper hard to read or incomplete addresses on mail, such as being able to deduce that a letter addressed to "Presidente Sterite, Catimoa" was meant to go to "President Street, Baltimore".
n18P TIL during the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford was suffering from dysentery, which resulted in frequent bathroom trips. This lead to the fight scene between him and the Arabian swordsman ending in the single gun shot so he could finish the scene and return to the bathroom.