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TIL farmer Wilmer McLean fled Virginia after the First and Second Battles of Bull Run occurred on his property and damaged his home. In 1865, his new home in Appomattox was selected by Colonel Marshall of the Confederacy to be the site of Lee's meeting with Grant, ending the war.

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nJRB TIL It is often assumed in astrobiology that if life exists somewhere else in the universe, it will also be carbon based.This assumption is referred to by critics as carbon chauvinism.
8lyV TIL, there is a grove of Aspen trees in Utah that is estimated to be 80,000 years old!
16gp4 TIL adult diapers outsell baby diapers in Japan.
JYjBv [TIL] Sir Thomas “Tommy” Macpherson rode into Nazi territory wearing Highlander regalia and bluffed a Major General and his 23,000 troops (including part of a panzer division) into surrendering. Macpherson was later knighted and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
8aG6V TIL in 1957, BBC pulled a April Fools prank by including a segment about spaghetti harvest in their news show Panorama, discussing how spaghetti is grown in fields in Switzerland. As a result, people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree.