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TIL That the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) doesn’t sanction a national championship for Division 1 FBS football.

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rRVPd TIL of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, used by the government to control the weather on demand. Examples include creating real snowfall for New Years Day and moving clouds away from the Olympic Stadium to prevent rain by firing chemicals into the sky.
KABG TIL the role of Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean” was originally written for Hugh Jackman, however, Jackman was not very well known at the time, so Disney cast Johnny Depp instead
69VLJ TIL there's a field of thousands of prehistoric stone jars in Laos
xVm8k TIL A small town called Centralia,PA is completely abandoned because of a coal-seam fire at depths of up to 300 feet (90 m) over an 8-mile (13 km) stretch of 3,700 acres (15 km2), that ignited on May 27, 1962 and is only speculated to be extinguished in the year 2256.
pYrLb TIL gerrymandering is named after a famous case where an 1812 district signed into law by Massachusetts Governor, Elbridge Gerry, resembled a salamander. A political cartoon published in the Boston Gazette dubbed it the "Gerry-mander".