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TIL the eponymous whale of Moby Dick was partly inspired by a real whale named Mocha Dick.

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yV81v Today I learned that during the renovation of the USA Library of Congress in the 1990s, it was discovered that the metallic ornamentation of the ceiling, once thought to be silver leaf, is actually aluminum leaf. When the building was constructed in the 1890s, aluminum was more precious than silver.
OomAg TIL That under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is explicitly illegal in Britain to use a machine gun to kill a hedgehog.
XWmE TIL Mark Twain traveled extensively and once said “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth…”
78eEL TIL Doc Martens are named after nazi doctor, Klaus Martens.
W7pPN TIL That Celiac Disease, Which Requires People to Be Gluten Free, Has Nothing to do With Allergies, But Is Instead an Autoimmune Disease That Can Cause Serious Permanent Damage