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TIL forged paintings can efficiently be tested for by identifying the isotopes cesium-137 and strontium-90 because they did not exist in nature before the nuclear bombings in 1945.

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JYwKv TIL Mark Twain initially supported American Imperialism, but, after discovering America's true motives in the Philippine–American War by reading the Treaty of Paris, he changed his position, saying "And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."
0DRv TIL that a holocaust denial group offered $50,000 to anyone who could prove that gas chambers were used to intentionally kill people at Auschwitz. They were forced by a judge to pay that money, and an additional $40,000, to Auschwitz survivor Mel Mermelstein who provided proof of that very fact.
VMeVp TIL the silent P in the word "ptarmigan" has absolutely no reason to be there. The bird's name comes from the Gaelic "tàrmachan" ("croaker"), but in 1684 the Scottish naturalist Robert Sibbald decided to add a p in front to make the word look more Greek.
16Kw8 TIL that France is the country with the most roundabouts in the world with 42,986 roundabouts throughout the country
n77r TIL in 1966–the same year as “Paint It Black,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Substitute,” “Wild Thing,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “The Sounds of Silence,” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’ ”–Billboard’s #1 song of the year was “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”