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TIL that Houston Street in New York is pronounced "HOW-stən" because it was named after William Houstoun (Statesman from Georgia). The City of Houston, Texas (pronounced "HYOO-stən") was named for Sam Houston - the only person to be elected governor of two different states (Texas and Tennessee).

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JYbpv TIL the second version of the confederate flag was almost entirely white to symbolize the "Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race". The design was changed after confederate soldiers complained that it looked too much like the white flag of defeat.
neG79 TIL of the 228 Incident, when the govt. of Taiwan massacred between 5,000 to 28,000 protestors, an event which was the precursor to the White Terror - a 38 year period of martial law - in which tens of thousands of other Taiwanese went missing, died or were imprisoned.
kOmee TIL that when US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara visited South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, he didn't know that Vietnamese was a tonal language. So, he thought that he was saying "Long live a free Vietnam!" but actually said "Vietnam, go to sleep!"
D1VLj TIL that Tiger woods is the first golfer who hit a ball from Europe to Asia. He did this on the bosphorus bridge in Istanbul, Turkey which is the bridge that connects asia and europe.
JYZDV TIL that in the late 1940s a team of American scientists infected 1,308 unwitting people in Guatemala with gonorrhea and syphilis. At least 83 died.