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TIL during the civil war the man who chose the location for the Arlington Cemetery, Montgomery Meigs, a southerner who hated the confederacy, chose Arlington, Robert E. Lees family estate to remind him of the men he had killed, including Meigs’s son who was buried feet from Mrs. Lees rose garden.

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e0Dn5 TIL John Babbacombe Lee was imprisoned (with weak evidence) for the murder of his employer in 1884 and was set to hang on February 21st, 1885. Though being carefully tested, the trapdoor of the gallows malfunctioned three times, resulting in John's freedom due to, "suspected divine intervention."
K1Qa TIL on 9/11 the Boston Air Traffic Center bypassed the “hijacking protocol” and called directly NORAD’s North Eastern Air Defense Sector (NEADS). NEADS and First Air Force decided to “get permission later” and scramble jets. Boston Center was NEADS’ only source of information throughout the attack.
9pWp TIL That some parents will have a child for the expressed purpose of harvesting their organs for another child. They are called “Savior Siblings”.
69LKl TIL about Walter Tetley, the voice actor who portrayed Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve in the 1940s-50s and Sherman on Rocky & Bullwinkle in the 1960s. It was rumored that his mother had had him 'fixed' before his voice changed
LZ7d TIL that during the search and rescue operations for the September 11th attacks, it was becoming rarer and rarer for rescue dogs to find anyone, leading them to feel failed, so firefighters hid in the rubble for the dogs to find them.