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TIL that although Balto is famously accredited for the 1925 Alaskan serum run, it was actually another Siberian Husky named Togo that lead the most perilous leg of the relay. Togo ran over 300 miles while the other relay sled teams, including Balto, averaged around 31 miles.

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Z8MQp TIL that Benjamin Franklin disliked the bald eagle as a symbol of America, calling it "a bird of bad moral character", and instead preferred the turkey, calling it "a Bird of Courage" who "would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards"
4MO5 TIL - Europeans didn’t know Marco Polo’s “Cathay” was really China or that the city “Cambulac” was really Beijing, until 1598 when Jesuit priests in Beijing talked to Arab merchants there, who still called it Cambulac. Maps until the 17th century showed China and Cathay as 2 different empires.
ANlYn TIL The last decade of Mary Shelley's life was dogged by illness, most likely caused by the brain tumour which killed her at age 53.
69Bj8 TIL Vancouver's Stanley Park Hollow Tree Conservation Society voted to save a six-metre-wide dead Hollow Tree stump and paid $200,000 worth of restoration work. The parks board voted to cut down the 700 year old tree, because it was a safety hazard
VBGEQ TIL about the Gullah subgroup of African Americans. Their language and culture have preserved a significant influence of Africanisms as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to their shared history and identity