› added 7 years ago

115

TIL about Daniel Freeman, a Civil War veteran and the first person to claim land under the Homestead Act. Later in life, he brought up and won a landmark separation of church and state case against a teacher who was evangelizing to her students with permission from the school board.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

LQNZ0 TIL Donald Bellisario, the creator of the show "Quantum Leap", served in the Marines(sgt) with Lee Harvey Oswald and interacted with him. He created an episode where it is made clear that Oswald killed Kennedy specifically because Bellisario was confident Oswald committed the assassination
pMZO TIL the first known illegal act on the internet was committed in 1973 by one of the first ARPANET engineers. He sent a request for return of his electric razor following a conference in England. At that time, personal use of the internet was unlawful.
XEP58 TIL Thomas Edison was almost killed by a badger which struck a train whilst he was travelling on its cowcatcher on his way to Wyoming for an eclipse.
Ex8P TIL George R.R. Martin has revealed the remaining major plot points of A Song of Ice and Fire to only the two producers of the HBO television series, in case he should die before Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring are published.
KYQv6 TIL that Indiana cardiologist Edward Harlamert broke the Guinness World Record for stents (34) by implanting at least 41 into his patient's coronary arteries, for a total of 48 stents in the man's chest. (Harlamert is now named in a malpractice complaint for stents by said patient and others.)