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TIL DC police officer William West warned Ulysses S Grant, the sitting President of the United States at the time, about recklessly driving his horse-drawn carriage. The next day West saw Grant driving in the same manner and placed the POTUS under arrest. (Washington Post, NOV 7 1925)

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W76m4 TIL South America is the only inhabited continent in the world without monarchies. All South American countries are presidential republics except Suriname (a parliamentary republic) and French Guiana (a French overseas department).
JpPk TIL minutes after FDR’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, died, the largest of the many oak trees outside her home suddenly collapsed. It was a clear, windless day.
OGMbg TIL: USS Fomalhaut was launched 25 January 1941 by Pennsylvania Shipyards, Inc., Beaumont, Tex., as Cape Lookout, a Type C1 ship cargo ship. The launch used 7,000 pounds of ripe bananas, which the US Maritime Commission found to be an "efficient substitute" for traditional launching grease.
a8J1A TIL in the 1980s, Jim Davis wanted plush Garfields made with Velcro so people could hang them on curtains, but the factory mistakenly returned the prototype with suction cups. He approved it. They soon became a craze and people were putting them on car windows and smashing car windows to steal them.
oB0jo TIL that Garth Brooks turned down the part of Private Jackson because he didn't want to share the spotlight with Tom Hanks who he thought was not famous enough and then was dropped when Garth wanted to play the bad guy for which Spielberg didn't have any to offer.