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TIL of Ghulam Dastagir, a Stationmaster who refused to leave his post during the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, & prevented any trains from stopping at the station, saving thousands of lives even as his colleagues were dead and he himself spent 2 decades in and out of hospital due to long exposure to the Gas

mxly TIL In 1970, Hunter S. Thompson ran for Sheriff of the county that has Aspen, CO on the Freak Power ticket. He was only defeated because the Republican candidate withdrew in order to consolidate anti-Thompson voters.
WnVL TIL George Lucas came back from shooting Star Wars in England to find Industrial Light & Magic only had 3 of the 365 shots completed yet had spent half of their $2 million. He was hospitalized for hypertension and vowed to never direct another film
rNAo TIL that the only dog to be registered in the Royal Navy, to prevent him from being euthanized, was named “Just Nuisance”, his trade listed as “Bonecrusher”, and his religion as “Scrounger.”
8epP8 TIL President Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon named Rebecca. He got it as a gift in place of a turkey for Thanksgiving and Coolidge had no interest in eating it so he kept Rebecca as a pet and had a “White House Raccoon” tag made for her.
XDg6 TIL that after many publishers claimed the original Harry Potter novel “was too long for a children’s book”, Nigel Newton, chairman of Bloomsbury Publishing agreed to read it as a favor, but tossed it to the side, only for his 8 year-old daughter to find it, read it, and demand more.