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TIL the final battle of the Revolutionary War was fought in Cuddalore, India between Britain and France. The war had actually formally ended via treaty six months prior, but the news didn’t reach India until June 29, 1783 when a British ship showed up in the midst of the battle waving a white flag.

8e5Nb TIL that in WWII the US military built a full-scale mockup of a Japanese cruiser out of lumber and chicken wire on the dry lake bed that would later become the home of Edwards AFB. It was used as a practice target for bomber crews in training.
jN16R TIL there is reportedly $2 million worth of treasure hidden in the Rocky Mountains. The man who claims he stashed it there says he did it to cheer people up after the Great Recession. Critics say he’s making it all up just to sell copies of his memoirs
R7pbj TIL that in 1997 Pope John Paul II had nominated St. Isidore of Seville to be the patron saint of the Internet, a seventh-century theologian and encyclopedist who tried to record everything ever known.
xVAK1 TIL that between 1995 and 2000, hundreds of girls in the US went through estrogen therapy that often causes serious long-term effects, to prevent them from growing taller because of perceived social harms of being “too tall”
vPbnR TIL Laverie Vallee (née Cooper; July 18, 1875 – February 6, 1949), best known by her stage name Charmion, was an American vaudeville trapeze artist and strongwoman. One of her risqué trapeze acts was captured on film in 1901 by Thomas Edison.