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TIL during pre-Civil War America, when free, blacks disproportionately became slave masters. About 28 percent of free blacks owned slaves—as opposed to less than 4.8 percent of southern whites, and dramatically more than the 1.4 percent of all white Americans who owned slaves.

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GPKG TIL a man named Jerry Gretzinger has been drawing a map of an imaginary world for over 50 years. He draws from a deck of cards each morning to decide the fate of his hand-drawn world, which is over 2000 square feet in size.
oRBQW TIL After France's surrender to Germany, the French Navy and over seas colonies remained under French directive. The government was moved to Vichy in the south, where an occupation 'Free Zone' was established that encompassed half of the county. This zone was ruled as an autocracy by the French.
j6JBa TIL Daylight Saving Time (DST) was first used in 1908 in Port Arthur, Ontario (today's Thunder Bay). While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, a few hundred Canadians beat the German Empire by eight years.
AKyd TIL that in 1914 there was an all Chinese baseball team that would tour America playing baseball. Their record for 1914 was 96 wins 61 lost and 4 tied
W7p8N TIL The US launched a small nuclear reactor into low earth orbit in the 1960s that is expected to remain in orbit for 4,000 years.