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TIL that Polynesians and Native Americans met nearly three hundred years before Columbus' first voyage. Scientists found that people across several Polynesian islands had Native American DNA, evidence that the two groups met one another. Scientists traced their first contact to about the year 1200.

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via reddit.com

N7N1J TIL that in the 70s, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tried creating its own artificial coral reef by dumping some 2 million used tires into the ocean. It became an environmental disaster, naturally, but also a military training exercise when divers had to retrieve the tires (almost one by one).
w17M TIL of H. H. Holmes, one of the first modern serial killers, who built a hotel full of hidden rooms and trap doors in order to kill visitors. He had 9 confirmed kills, confessed to 27, and is estimated to have killed up to 200 people.
78NMZ TIL the name "Fannie Mae" comes from the abbreviation for Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)
G4G TIL the U.S. government has specifications for its pens used by personnel: The pen consists of seven different parts and meets 16 pages of military specs, including that it be able to write for a mile with no fading and withstand temperatures up to 160 degrees and down to 40 degrees below zero.
wLKBW TIL that abolitionist martyrJohn Brown was “cheerful” awaiting execution. Brown, a devout Christian recognizing the power of martyrdom, was “fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than any other purpose.” Emerson: “If he shall suffer. the gallows will be glorious like the cross.”