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TIL The Alamo was fought over slavery. Texas settlers wanted to keep slaves after Vicente Guerrero, the black president of Mexico, fought for and abolished slavery. But Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston hatched a plan to take Texas from Mexico to create a slave state.

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wLbZM TIL C.W. Post created Grapenuts (purported to cure appendicitis) after visiting a sanitarium run by John Harvey Kellogg. Post later developed appendicitis himself and, after not obtaining relief from surgery, died of a self inflicted gunshot wound.
98lQ TIL that a German knight named Gotz von Berlichingen lost his hand in 1504, and had it replaced with a mechanical iron prosthetic. It was capable of grasping everything from a sword to a feather pen.
9YVQ TIL that Norman Borlaug is considered to be one of the greatest humanitarians as he credited for saving billions of lives, but most people have never heard of him
78VBr TIL L'Anse aux Meadows is the oldest known European settlement in North America. Discovered in 1960 in present-day Newfoundland, its origin was confirmed to be Viking from the 11th century based on artifacts and evidence consistent with other known Norse examples in Greenland and Iceland
E1ejd TIL about the oldest trees in the world, the oldest one ever found known as Prometheus located in Nevada, which lived for approx 5000 years until it was cut by a graduate student and United States and Forest Service for other research purposes unknowing of the history of the tree.