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TIL in 1972 a pocket of uranium in Africa was found to have undergone self-sustaining nuclear fission for over 100,000 years, making it the only known naturally formed nuclear reactor.

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YGaB TIL Isaac Newton’s Principia, one of the most significant scientific works in history, was nearly left unpublished, as the Royal Society had already spent all their funds printing the hugely unsuccessful ‘History of Fish’
0wBry TIL HSBC (The Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp) was founded to handle the British side of the Chinese opium trade.
grlLb TIL that pronouncing Arkansas as "Arkansaw" is required by Arkansas state law. "-as" is how French explorers spelled what they heard local Indians say as their name for the region, which Americans spelled as "-aw". The 1881 law honors the French spelling and Indian pronunciation.
4X4Wg TIL: Starsky & Hutch was based on two real-life NYC cops, Lou Telano and John Sepe, who went undercover as Hasidic Jews, gay lovers, and female nurses in the 1960s and 1970s.
XKoQ TIL that Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (86 CE – 161 CE) had the most peaceful reign of any ruler in antiquity. There is no record of any major events or conflicts during his 23 year reign. He was a skilled administrator and was praised by his contemporaries for his effective style of governance.