› added 6 years ago

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TIL about Rebecca Huger, an 11-year-old emancipated slave girl who posed for patriotic photos with the U.S. flag; the photos were sold to raise money for the education of freed slaves in New Orleans. "To all appearance she [was] perfectly white," like her father/former owner.

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oPNL TIL in 1990 Donald Trump threatened to sue the stock broker firm Janney Montgomery Scott after an analyst made negative comments regarding the financial prospects of the Taj Mahal. The analyst was fired, refusing to withdraw the statement. The Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy later that same year.
9w06M TIL of the 118 elements, 19 are named after 20 people. Only Seaborg and Oganessian were honored with elements while still alive, and Oganessian is the only one still living. Proposals to name elements for Einstein and Fermi came during their lifetimes, but they had passed before it became official.
9YVLQ TIL when the territory of Wyoming applied to join the US, congress told them they'd have to stop letting women vote. Their response was "We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women”. In 1890 they joined as the first and only state to allow women to vote.
VN6D TIL to help support his family, Shia LaBeouf would dress up like a clown and sell hot dogs in the park across the sreet from his family’s apartment.
KOPd9 TIL of Adolfo Kaminsky, a 18 year-old French forger who faked IDs for Jews during WWII. He once worked for 3 days straight to make papers for 300 children until he passed out. He kept his work a secret - his own daughter only learned the details while writing a book about him.