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TIL The first settler to successfully grow commercial Tobacco was John Rolfe in Jamestown, in Virginia in 1609. In 1614, the first shipment was sent to England. In 1638, 3,000,000 pounds was being sent annually. By the 1680s, Jamestown was producing over 25,000,000 pounds for export to Europe.

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XE6DR TIL of Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who in 1864 became the first African-American woman to become a physician in the United States. After the American Civil War ended in 1864 she moved from Boston to Virginia to provide medical care to freed slaves.
xVyaw TIL about Robert Smalls, a former slave who escaped by stealing a Confederate gunship, The CSS Planter. He did it by giving the correct signals at checkpoints, fooling Confederate onlookers from shore. After gaining his freedom, he became a successful businessman, publisher, & politician.
v1Vnj TIL the reason the film Selma didn't use MLK's actual speeches is because Steven Spielberg has the sole film rights to all of MLK's speeches in 2009. Ava DuVernay wrote speeches that were plausible, but different enough to avoid a copyright battle.
X0r8r TIL that in September 1752 in Britain and the British Empire, 11 days were wiped off the calendar. The 3rd of September became the 14th, sparking street demonstrations with chants "give us our 11 days". This was due to switching to the Gregorian calendar with the leap year.
YOeG TIL, a group of coconut crabs is called a “nightmare,” with leg spans reaching up to three feet, and are known to climb trees on their native islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans; they’ve also been observed devouring chickens and kittens.