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TIL Muhammad Ali was named after Cassius Marcellus Clay, an ardent abolitionist who emancipated the 40 slaves he inherited from his father. Clay edited an anti-slavery newspaper, commanded troops in the Mexican-American War and served as minister to Russia under Abraham Lincoln.

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X0naQ TIL when East Germany reunified with West Germany in 1990, the German government withdrew East Germany banknotes from circulation, but instead of burning them, they let them rot in a concrete bunker until two people broke in and stole a large quantity of notes in 2001. Then what was left was burned.
4XRBg TIL Weird Al Yankovich once turned down a 5 million dollar offer to star in a beer commercial, because he felt many of his fans were young and impressionable.
9jLQ TIL Julia “Butterfly” Hill, on December 10, 1997, ascended 180 feet (55 m) up the redwood tree Luna to stave off Pacific Lumber Co. loggers who were clear-cutting. Hill lived on two 6-by-6-foot (1.8 by 1.8 m) platforms for 738 days until a resolution was reached with the logging company.
awleM TIL Carlos Rodriguez is known as 'The man without a brain'. He survived a car accident while on drugs and made a full recovery with all of his mental abilities and memories intact except for missing an astonishingly large portion of his brain and skull.
ZpX8B Today I learned, French automaker Citroën, sabotaged wartime Nazi truck production by moving the notch on the oil dipstick down. The engines would not have the correct amount of oil and prematurely fail.