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TIL: Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar playing Mammy in Gone With The Wind, was criticized in the black community for playing racial stereotypes. Her response: “Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn’t, I’d be making $7 a week being one.”

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wnV7 TIL The Singer Sewing Machine Company built 500 1911 pistols for the US Government in 1939 and they are one of the most collectable firearms of that era.
wLn5Y TIL that in 1642, Connecticut settler George Spencer was suspected of bestiality when a local pig birthed a piglet that resembled Spencer. He confessed, and they hanged both George and the pig. Another settler was later convicted of the same crime, named Thomas Hogg.
ne8mb TIL the orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) is a beautiful white, pinkish-white, or brownish-white species of praying mantis with lobes on its legs that look like flower petals which the mantis uses to its advantage when capturing its prey. It can change color depending on environmental conditions.
rNYxe TIL the neighborhood of Rego Park, Queens (NYC) got its name from the Real Good Construction Company, which began residential development in the area in the 1920s, combining the first two letters of “Real” and “Good.”
eYxD TIL: Scottish economist Adam Smith predicted in his book the Wealth of Nations (1776) that, if given representation in Parliament, in a century the Thirteen Colonies would control the British Empire. By 1913, the USA’s economy surpassed the entire British Empire.