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TIL that the 1877 novel Black Beauty, now considered a children's classic, was written for adults by author Anna Sewell to highlight the problem of animal abuse and was subtitled "The Autobiography of a Horse." Ironically, Sewell was an invalid at the time and could not ride herself.

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yQDrJ TIL that while American mathematician David Blackwell was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, he was prevented from attending lectures at Princeton University because of his race. In 1965 was the first African American named to the National Academy of Sciences.
OG4 TIL that Theodor Geisel was caught drinking gin as a Dartmouth undergrad and forced to resign from the college humor magazine, so he started contributing under a pseudonym—Dr. Seuss.
6pr8 TIL that payed, a common misspelling of paid, is an actual word that means an act of sealing the deck or seams of wooden ships with pitch to prevent water leakage. This makes it an atomic typo(link in comments)
rww4 TIL there are 62 episodes of Breaking Bad. The 62nd element in the periodic table is Samarium, which is used to treat lung cancer
6Z7 TIL Robert Louis Stevenson gave away his birthday when he was finished with it to a 12 year old girl who was born on Christmas.