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TIL: the birth certificate was invented as a way to verify people’s ages in order to enforce new child labor restrictions

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K5vR TIL there’s a Post Office at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It serves the Havasupai Reservation and the town of Supai, and post arrives via mule on a 2 ½ hour journey each day.
0wr8M TIL the first official Medals of Honor were awarded to several Union soldiers who went behind enemy lines and commandeered a train and sabotaged their way back to the North.
gr5Qy TIL the United States is the only country that has a top-level domain for its military (.mil), its higher education system (.edu) and its government agencies (.gov) - a result of the Internet originating as a U.S. government-sponsored research network.
5V0JB TIL the 1980s Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar illegally imported four hippos (one male and three female) to his private zoo. After his death in 1993, the hippos were left to roam freely. With no natural predators, their population grew significantly, leading to ecological concerns.
bwK4 TIL that we still do not know how to define death. These “beating heart corpses” can urinate; their bodies rumble, their wounds heal; they can blush and sweat, & can even have babies. Yet, clinically, they are dead. One method to determine death has won a Nobel prize