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TIL: In 2009 the city council of Madison, WI voted to make the plastic lawn flamingo the city’s offical bird

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kJl61 TIL that in his will, George Washington left directions to emancipate all of the enslaved people that he owned after the death of Martha Washington. On January 1, 1801, all of the enslaved people he owned were freed. The Emancipation Proclamation was put into act on January 1, 1863, 62 years later.
Oo5lX TIL that for every one bird killed by wind turbines in the U.S. there are 4,000 to 17,000 killed by cats.
NXELQ TIL The Carpenters 1970 signature smash hit song We've Only Just Begun was originally performed by its lyricist Paul Williams (The Rainbow Connection) for a bank's TV commercial.
neRx7 TIL that a very large telescope in Chili is officially called “the Very Large Telescope.”
yVyA8 TIL that a uranium mill operated from 1950-1984 in Moab Utah, leaving a large pile of contaminated waste on the banks of the Colorado River, endangering human, animal, and plant life all the way to Mexico. Clean-up is underway and will cost taxpayers as much as 1 billion dollars.