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TIL James Smithson sent the US $500,000 (1.5% the federal budget) in the 19C to found an institution "for the creation and diffusion of knowledge." The Smithsonian is today the world's largest museum complex; all are free of charge and open to the public, and James Smithson never visited the US.

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via reddit.com

86ob TIL Anatoli Bugorski, a Russian scientist, survived being hit directly in the face by a particle accelerator beam.
4kDvX TIL in 1780 James Jackson (well known as a duelist with a fiery temper) killed Georgia governor George Wells in a duel. In 1788, he was elected governor but declined it, citing his inexperience. Instead he served as a congressman & senator before being elected the 23rd governor of Georgia in 1797.
jxva TIL that Blizzard sued a woman running her own private WoW server, in which she sold items through PayPal, for $88,594,539.00 and won.
p058 TIL after his wife died because the nearest doctor was 70km away, Dashrath Manjhi carved a 360-foot-long and 30-foot-wide path through a mountain in 22 years, using a hammer and a chisel to make the path from his village to Wazirganj, with its doctors, jobs, and school, only 15 km away.
m15aM TIL: Andrew Bonar Law is the only Canadian to have served as Prime Minister of the UK. He was born in New-Brunswick which was a British colony at the time.