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TIL in 1692, an impoverished widow and mother of 8 named Susannah Martin fell victim to the Salem Witch Trials and was hanged. Her great-great-great-great Grandson would become the 21st President of the US, Chester A. Arthur.

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97pG TIL a London skyscraper’s curved glass facade caused a series of fires - reflected and concentrated sunlight spontaneously ignited the carpets in adjacent businesses and melted parts of cars parked nearby
wLRNY TIL about the Royal Hawaiian Navy, which consisted of a single ship, HHMS Kaimiloa, and existed for about 5 months, from March to August of 1887. She only had a single mission- to sail to Samoa to seek an alliance. That mission failed, mostly due to colonial ambitions of world powers at the time.
EjoX TIL a group of monkeys in Thailand has been living in the Stone Age for 50 years
7eB7 TIL The town of Tikrit in Iraq erected a monument of the shoe thrown at Geroge W Bush.
PYBaG TIL that Judith Viorst (author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) wrote a poem about her parents' deaths when she was seven. Both her parents were still alive at the time, and were not amused.