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TIL the Pony Express was only active for a year and a half. When business ended, they lost over $200,000, which is equivalent to over $6,000,000 in todays standard.

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nWPro TIL that the US national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, uses the melody of a British drinking song, To Anacreon in Heaven, written by John Stafford Smith in the 1770s for London’s Anacreontic Society; a gentlemen’s club dedicated to “wit, harmony, and the god of wine.”
D1x5P TIL that when an Indian Captain was badly wounded in WW2 Burma and thought to be on his deathbed, he was quickly awarded a Military Cross because at the time it couldn't be given posthumously. He survived and became the first Indian to be promoted to Field Marshal.
4weo TIL the tradition for standing during the hallelujah chorus of Handel’s Messiah started because King George II stood during it at the first performance in England, and then everyone else had to stand up, and no one knows why George stood up.
yQmkV TIL not only does the Aztec word that became avocado mean “testicle” (because it grows in pairs), but the fruit was apparently adapted for megafauna like mammoths and giant sloths who would eat it and poop out its unusually large seed in distant locations.
dDwWQ TIL Of Titanic Thompson, a prolific hustler and golfer of the early 20th century. One of Thompson's tricks was to play righthanded, win, and offer to play double or nothing lefthanded, he was naturally lefthanded. In his time a professional golfer could earn 30,000$ a year, he earned that in a week.