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TIL About the 'Balloon Hoax'. Perpetrated by Edgar Allen Poe in The New York Sun it purported to tell the story of a three day lighter than air balloon trip across the Atlantic. The story was revealed as a hoax two days later.

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6mdJ TIL The new Marriott in Port au Prince is a teaching hotel and hiring priorities are given to Haitians in need of work over past experience or skill set in order to support the community. Extra showers and facilities were built for the staff, many of whom don’t have running water in their own homes
E1w5p TIL Fergie, the Black Eyed Peas frontwoman, sent Alanis Morissette a butt-shaped cake after being impressed by her cover version and video of My Humps.
P1l9E TIL A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree of any of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae, like the bald cypress. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in standing water
JY1LQ TIL that Ricky Gutierrez set the Major League Baseball record for seeing the most pitches in a single at-bat (20) in 1998 against a pitcher, Bartolo Colon, who nearly 20 years later is still an active player.
4XOxR TIL that in 1997 when the Methuen Mall closed, Applebee's refused to leave. For two years the mall was completely empty, save for the single Applebee's. The mall was demolished around the Applebee's, leaving the restaurant alone on a 60-acre lot until a lengthy legal battle forced them to leave.