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TIL After the final battle of the Appomattox Court House that ended the US Civil War, as Lee and Grant were finishing terms of surrender, Lee turned to Grant's aide, a Seneca named Ely Parker, and remarked "It is good to have one real American here." Parker replied, "Sir, we are all Americans."

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x6aQ0 TIL that the Convair Model 118, a tentative flying car from 1947, was shelved because its prototype crashed when a test pilot mixed up the flight engine's fuel gauge with the road engine's and didn't see the former run out. While he survived, this killed interest in the project.
nJJr TIL Hitler annexed Austria through a rigged popular referendum. The bubble representing “No” to union was half the size of “Yes” and was shoved to the corner of the ballot.
XEmQ8 TIL that the secret of True Damascus steel isnt lost, and it's able to be replicated using crucible steel with carbide forming elements like vanadium and molybdenum
xV8p5 TIL of Lisztomania, the obsessive fan hysteria surrounding the classical composer Franz Liszt. Admirers would fight over his locks of his hair, pull his carriage like horses, and carry glass vials of his old cigars and coffee dregs.
E0Vd TIL Scientists isolated bacterium from a man’s intestines & used it to fatten mice specially bred to resist obesity. The microbe made up 35% of microorganisms in his digestive tract & a diet formulated to kill off those bacteria reduced the levels to below detection. He lost 113 pounds in 23 weeks.