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TIL Shakespeare invented the name Jessica for the play ‘The Merchant of Venice’

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Zywa TIL Mark Twain wrote that Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs are “an unapproachable literary masterpiece” and that the memoirs are regarded as the best military memoirs in existence.
x6kbw TIL that the phrase „New Deal“ as used by FDR does not mean deal as in agreement, but Deal as in dealing cards. The American people were supposed to get dealt a new hand
9YRpX TIL During WW2, the US created information material for its white soldiers about to be stationed in Britain, warning them that they would have to cope with black soldiers joining them in pubs. "It might not happen at home, but the point is, we are not at home".
lrBG TIL that JC Penney marketed items as being higher than their retail price and then put them on sale to create more demand for the regular priced item.
Mvx8 TIL in 1957 the BBC aired an April fools hoax about spaghetti grows on trees. Some viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees.