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TIL 26-yr-old Henry David Thoreau accidentally set fire to over 300 acres of forest where he was to build his famous Walden Pond shack when he & his buddy failed to beat back flames from the fire they set to cook fish they'd caught. Townsfolk called Thoreau a “damned rascal” & “a flibbertigibbet.”

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Z8Nd4 TIL Otis Redding's widow, Zelma Redding, wrote a letter to Michael Bolton saying his cover of "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" was her favorite. She remarked that it brought tears to her eyes as it reminded her so much of her husband. Bolton had the letter framed and it hangs on his office wall.
1A8D TIL there is a nuclear waste repository under construction set to be completed in 2100 and then sealed shut intentionally for over 100,000 years. The crew has considered placing markers on the site with every major language to warn future generations not to drill into the bedrock.
nr87 TIL The voices of Mickey and Minnie Mouse were actually married in real life.
PYAwZ TIL that, in 1874, a bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives to pay Harriet Tubman $2,000 for services she provided the Union Army during the American Civil War as a scout, nurse and spy, but it got defeated in the Senate
5YxWk TIL that Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut was altered by the studio, post Kubrick’s final cut, by strategically placing shadowy figures and objects so that the orgy scene was less explicit and the film would receive an R rating. NSFW.