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TIL that workers at Yosemite National Park used to create a 3,000 foot "waterfall" of fire by building a massive bonfire at the top of Glacier Point and push the burning embers over the edge. The practice went on for almost 100 years and only ended in 1968.

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X8KR TIL That the reason the suffix ‘gate’ is tacked on to every scandal is because of William Safire, a speechwriter for Nixon and a political commentator at the NYT, who began affixing all scandals with -gate in the belief it would make his boss’s crimes seem less severe in the light of history
rYkd TIL A psychiatrist convicted of Marijuana possession escaped from prison after cheating on a psychology test that he designed himself so that he was placed in a lower security prison.
DQaWP TIL the deadliest recorded hailstorm occurred in India in 1888 and killed as many as 246 people with hail the size of Oranges.
QJ0l9 TIL the reason cats and snakes have vertical pupils is because it increases their depth perception while hunting at night while prey animals such as sheep have horizontal pupils so that they may have a panoramic view of their surroundings to watch for predators.
xXG7 TIL that in the 1700s, the Russian Empire had a black African major-general, governor and nobleman, who had come from Africa as a gift for Peter the Great, and who was also the great-grandfather of Russian author Pushkin.