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TIL that Thora Birch was 16 and therefore considered a minor when she shot her nude scene for “American Beauty.” Her parents and child labor board members monitored the shoot.

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Oxj4 TIL: “One man actually succeeded in reinventing the wheel. John Keogh … submitted a patent application for a ‘circular transportation facilitation device’ in May 2001, shortly after a new patent system was introduced in Australia. His 'wheel’ was issued a patent.”
Wkad8 TIL: The wingspan on a Boeing 747 (59.6-68.4m) is longer than the Wright Brothers' first powered flight which managed 37m in December 1903
dym8 TIL J.R.R. Tolkien finished his own translation of Beowulf in 1926, but never published it. One of his sons edited and published it for him this year.
ADZ9a TIL Physicists at Washington State University created 'negative mass' where unlike every known physical object in the world, it doesn't accelerate in the direction it was pushed. It accelerates backwards.
pYnm8 TIL Astronomer Rudolf Wolf only counted large sunspots that were clearly visible so observations can be consistent with older telescopes, even though his assistant noted that one can actually detect many more sunspots