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TIL Alaska was never meant to be separated from the rest of the United States, but would be linked when British Columbia also joined. Instead, the Alaska Purchase compelled British Columbia to join the Canadian Confederation 3 months later.

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58wB TIL that in 1992 a storm caused 29,000 rubber ducks to be washed off a container ship. The knowledge gained from studying the duck’s movement revolutionised our understanding of the ocean currents. Many of these ducks are still believed to be floating in the seas today.
Jxy4 TIL Kurt Russel directed Tombstone, but didn’t want to be listed as the director. Of the two listed directors, one was fired very early in the production and the second was a “ghost director”.
QNPYE TIL: In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex was a person trained in haruspicy, the divination practice of inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals, particularly the livers of sheep and poultry. The reading of omens specifically from the liver is known by the Greek term hepatoscopy.
78JwM TIL about Jawhar al-Siqilli, an Italian sodlier-slave in Fatimid hands who gained his freedom after 40 years of slavery and worked his way up to becoming the viceroy of Egypt, there he founded the city of Cairo and the al-Azhar university, the oldest university in the world.
BrMoL TIL George Lucas originally wanted to make an updated Flash Gordon movie, but no one took him seriously and he couldn't obtain the rights, so he made Star Wars instead.