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TIL that in 1787, Swiss scientific pioneer Horace Bénédict de Saussure literally cut off the top of the Alps' highest mountain, Mont Blanc, at 15,344 ft. It is now available on display at Teyler's museum in the Netherlands.

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KLyG TIL the U.S. government spends billions of dollars providing GPS for the entire world to use for free
4rOJ TIL That Sean Bean gets fan mail intended for Rowan Atkinson who played ‘Mr. Bean’
VM4x8 TIL the Russian battleship Sissoi Veliky was built with design and construction problems, yet commissioned anyway. Flooding from an artillery barrage and torpedo hit sank her in the only battle she participated in, causing the deaths of 47 sailors.
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ZbDv TIL while in college during the Prohibition era, Dr. Seuss was caught drinking gin with friends in his dorm room. He was forced to write under a pen-name to dodge his ban from writing for the school’s humor magazine. Thus, Theodore Geisel chose his now-legendary pseudonym.