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TIL about the Great Storm of Galveston in 1900. The category 4 hurricane brought winds of 130 mph and tides of 15 feet. Upwards of 8,000 people were killed overnight. After the storm the city built a sea wall and raised building that survived by 10 feet!

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6RDQ TIL When Canadian Prime Minster Lester B. Pearson Came To Philadelphia To Speak Against The Vietnam War, Before He Could Finish His Speech President Lyndon B. Johnson summoned him to Camp David, Maryland where he grabbed him and said “Don’t you come into my living room and piss on my rug.”
mxvmE TIL: President Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant but changed his name at West Point to avoid having his military uniforms marked with initials "H.U.G."
BrlYD TIL the Turkish sultan Alp Arslan took great pride in his archery. When a captured enemy drew his dagger and charged him, Arslan waived his guards away and drew his bow. He missed, got stabbed in the chest and died four days later from his wounds.
6Dnw TIL Starting in 1945, more than 8,000 Dutch people have adopted the grave of an American WWII soldier buried at Margraten, Netherlands. They visit regularly with flowers and graves are passed to the next generation. There is a waiting list to adopt a grave.
nWWK9 TiL that upon finishing the sci fi film "Devil Girls From Mars", a then 12 year old Octavia Butler concluded that she could write a better story. Butler went on to win multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and became the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.