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55

TIL that the first American government issued quarter was released in 1796

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DQ1WJ TIL In 1962 the French Defense Minister and Minister of Scientific Research were accidentally exposed to nuclear fallout. A subteranean nuclear bomb test in Béryl failed and the minister of defence described it as, 'a kind of gigantic blowtorch flame that started exactly horizontal in our direction'
pYJjp TIL Albert Lexie was a shoeshiner who worked at the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh beginning in the early 1980s. Over the course of his roughly 30-year career he donated $200,000 to the Free Care Fund, more than a third of his lifetime salary.
E1MZx TIL Botswana did not even create a military for ten years after gaining independence. Cross-border incursions from Rhodesia presented an interstate threat, rare in Africa, forcing them to professionalize defense in 1977. Despite this, Botswana is Africa's oldest democracy, never experiencing a coup.
QNWwa TIL two gifted college students considered themselves so superior they planned “the perfect murder” to prove their intellectual abilities. After murdering a child, despite their purported genius, they left plenty of evidence and were swiftly caught and brought to judgment.
EgOAX TIL Canada has a strategic maple syrup reserve