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TIL right before President William McKinley was assassinated at a public reception, he had given his trademark good luck charm, a red carnation, to a 12-year old girl in the crowd.

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ZpD1v TIL that in the late 1800's and early 1900's, gambling on US elections was extremely widespread. In New York, the amount of money spent on betting on elections would often exceed the total trading in stocks and bonds. Since there weren't modern polls, betting odds were how newspaper predicted races.
awb60 TIL that prior to 158 years ago in the West, babies were born and assigned the age 1 at birth. This was because scholars thought the number 0 was connected to a void which was connected to Satan, therefore not giving babies a year “0” at birth.
781wP TIL The song Take Me Home Country Roads, in Virginia, by John Denver was originally Take Me Home, Clopper Road in Maryland
4xkR TIL in the 1930s, an Irish man named Michael Malloy survived being intentionally fed Antifreeze, Terpentine, Rat Poison, being left in -14 Degree Weather and getting hit by a taxi in a life insurance scam. His nickname became “Mike the Durable”.
BrrRL TIL "E.T. the Extraterrestrial" was rejected by Columbia Pictures whose chairman called it "a wimpy Walt Disney movie"