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TIL when President Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico citing that it had "shed American blood upon the American soil", then-Representative Abraham Lincoln protested with resolutions demanding to know the "particular spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was so shed."

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W7YxN TIL in 1947 Bing Crosby had to record a new version of "(I'm Dreaming of a) White Christmas" because the original master version of 1942 wore out, due to being constantly repressed to meet demand. This version soon replaced the original and became the standard we usually hear on the radio today.
69or8 TIL after butchering their oxen for meat and nearly dying of thirst, William Manly led a wagon out of a valley in California and when leaving someone in the group turned to say "Goodbye, Death Valley!" The name stuck.
R5Dy7 TIL that in 2011 a resident of Atherton, California called police to report a strange light in the sky. Police were able to determine that the strange light was the moon.
Lk4wp TIL that Mike Judge moved to Texas and a storm blew off a part of his fence. After his new neighbors fixed it for him, no questions asked, it became the basis for King Of The Hill - "about neighbors who... ultimately, do the right thing and do right by people and are basically good people."
KONdB TIL Allvar Gullstrand applied the methods of physical mathematics to the study of optical images and refraction of light in the eye and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1911. Due to the math in his works, it is lamented there are few ophthalmologists and physiologists who can understand it