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TIL that the General Mining Act of 1872, which allowed those who discovered mineral deposits on federally owned land to work the claim and keep all the proceeds (with a $5/acre fee), is still in force today.

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xKPk TIL Jews arrived in India 2500 years ago and unlike many parts of the world, Jews have historically lived in India without any instances of antisemitism from the local majority populace.
kOwy5 TIL: Pedi people (a tribe in South Africa) wear Scottish kilts. Citing oral history, the use of kilts dates to 1879. They say that's when the tribe lost a battle because its warriors thought kilted Scots leading a British army were women and held their fire until realizing their mistake too late.
nW0Jd TIL that a common complaint among test audiences for Good Night and Good Luck was that the actor playing Joseph McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing the film used actual archival footage of McCarthy himself
Ov54 TIL in 1998 while conservationists were repairing Benjamin franklins London home, 15 bodies were found in the basement, buried in a secret windowless room beneath the garden. It’s thought the remains are from an anatomy school run by Benjamin Franklin’s friend William Hewson
XEJJr TIL Muhammad Ali lost his heavyweight title, got his passport revoked and faced a five-year prison term for not wanting to join the US Army in the Vietnam War. "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong," he said. "They never called me n****r."