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TIL in 1861, the King of Siam offered a pair of elephants as a gift to America "to be let loose to increase and multiply in the continent of America". Lincoln sent a letter declining the gift, as elephants would be useless in Industrial America, and they likely would not survive anyway.

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P40O TIL that in 2002, Dave Grohl became the first person to hold the number one spot on the modern rock charts as a member of three different groups
awnPM TIL of the Mace Kingsley Ranch, a Scientology Private School where students were forced to do hard labor and the director, Wally Hanks, would punish the students with beatings (he was caught on audio tape). The school shut down in 2002.
a8jLN TIL in the 5th century, a Chinese missionary named Hui Shen claimed to have found a land east of China called Fusang. It is now theorized that Fusang may have actually been North America, due to archeological similarities between the California coast and Fusang as depicted by Asian sources.
yWMM TIL that despite the Seven Years’ War between Britain and France, France instructed its ships not to interfere with the Endeavour’s expedition to Tahiti to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus as, it was ‘out on enterprises of service to all mankind’.
BrPWk TIL the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles has no real meaning. The band wanted to create "sort of like an episode of the Twilight Zone", and ""We decided to create something strange, just to see if we could do it".