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TIL in 2008 Chicago sold off all of its city parking meters to private investors for 75 years, and the private investors already made their money back and turned a profit.

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rRPKw TIL about the Republic of Vermont, an independent republic that lasted from 1777 to 1791, which, after breaking away from Quebec, fought with the Americans against the British in the Revolutionary War, and was admitted to the union as a counterweight to the slave state of Kentucky.
E1kjW TIL on 1529, Hernán Cortés received the Marquessate of the Valley of Oaxaca as a fief in Mexico
oB8xY TIL that in 1979, George Lucas created the Lucasfilm Computer Department with two branches. The Games Group became LucasArts. The Graphics Group became Pixar
GAxV5 TIL Jimmy Stewart earned 50% of the profits ($600K) for the movie Winchester '73 (1950). This is acknowledged as the first confirmed time in the sound era that a film actor received some of the movie's receipts as compensation, a practice now called "points".
pYon8 Today I learned that the Great Wall of China is a bunch of smaller walls built over many centuries, and they each have their own names.