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TIL Thomas Jefferson initially thought black people were mentally inferior, but when black mathematician Benjamin Bannecker showed Jefferson his almanac with astronomical calculations, Jefferson praised Bannecker, treating him as an equal

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p6Lb TIL on April 1, 1980, BBC news ervice “reported” that the Big Ben will get a digital readout, and that the clock hands will be given to the first four listeners to call. Later on, BBC received a massive amount of phone calls from angry protestors, and ended up spending several days to apologize.
D80j TIL in 1982 as a protest against actions by the United States federal government, Key West in Florida seceded from and then declared war on the United States, surrendered one minute later and then applied for one billion dollars in foreign aid.
N7gw8 TIL Bob Weinstein wanted Peter Jackson to cut out the Battle of Helm's deep, merge Gondor and Rohan into one kingdom, and make Éowyn Boromir's sister during the production of The Lord of the Rings movies.
OG4p6 TIL that following bad losses in the 1946 Midterm elections Senator Fulbright suggested that Truman appoint a Republican VP and then resign. This way, Dems would have policies to run against in the 1948 General election. Truman responded that he did not care what "Senator Halfbright" suggested.
4d65 TIL that Will Smith doesn’t use profanity in his lyrics because his grandmother wrote to him “intelligent people do not use these words to express themselves”