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North Carolina's Gold Discovery
1. In 1803, a 12-year-old boy discovered a 17-pound gold nugget on his father's farm in North Carolina, marking the beginning of the first U.S. gold rush. This discovery significantly impacted the region, supplying all the gold for the nation's mints until 1829. The find set off a series of events that would eventually lead to further gold rushes across the United States.
2. 800 different languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city on Earth.
3. When a French scientist claimed that American wildlife was inferior to European wildlife, Thomas Jefferson took offense and decided to take action. He instructed a group of soldiers to procure and send a bull moose from New Hampshire to the scientist in Paris. This gesture was meant to demonstrate the "stature and majesty of American quadrupeds," and they successfully delivered a giant moose carcass to Paris.
4. José Mujica, the former President of Uruguay, was considered the poorest president in the world; he donated 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities and even waited his turn at public hospitals.
5. In 2004 authorities shut down 215 restaurants in Guizhou, China, for adding opium to food to addict patrons. By 2016, 35 restaurants across the country were charged in similar cases.
6. An abbreviation qualifies as an acronym only if it is pronounced as a real word, such as NASA. Otherwise, it is classified as an initialism, like FBI, where each letter is spoken separately.
7. The term "gaslighting" comes from Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play and its 1944 film adaptation, in which the abusive husband Gregory systematically convinces his wife Paula that she is losing her mind. For example, he alternately dims and brightens the gas lights while insisting the changes are imagined, thereby undermining her perception and self-confidence.
8. While serving as president in the 1820s, John Quincy Adams reportedly supported funding an expedition to the Earth's center based on the Hollow Earth theory. Believers claimed that entrances at the North and South Poles led to a subterranean world inhabited by "Mole People." Though the plan never left the ground, the bizarre proposal became one of the strangest episodes associated with Adams's time in office.
9. Russia remained the sixth-largest holder of enslaved people, with an estimated 516,000 in 2013.
10. Gary Webb, the reporter who revealed the CIA's role in the Contra-Crack incident, died by suicide in a suspicious manner, with two gunshot wounds to the head.
