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113

TIL in Alaska, lakes outnumber humans by more than 4:1

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epk6k TIL that when Canada's Waterloo Lutheran University needed a new name in 1973, it renamed itself after Wilfrid Laurier. While the country's seventh prime minister had no connection with the school, the newly named Wilfrid Laurier University did not have to change its initials, WLU.
5YNk TIL In 1988, a US warship shot down an Iranian airliner while in their waters. A total of 290 Iranians died, including 66 children. The U.S. paid $61.8m in reparations, but never apologized. VP Bush later stated, I’ll never apologize for the U.S. Ever. I don’t care what the facts are.
69Ma7 TIL that Tahiti is the first and only nation other than Australia and New Zealand to win the OFC Men’s Nations Cup
W7YBN TIL that early in Edgar Allen Poe's writing career, he published an essay exposing a fake chess-playing automaton that was actually operated by a chess master hidden inside. The essay employs a method of deduction called 'ratiocination' which is used by C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective.
4kPjX TIL a Russian WWII survivor jumped ship in San Francisco, fled immigration, and lived for nearly 20 years in a Northern California redwood forest, where he built bark shelters that still stand today.