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TIL Harry Truman dreamed of attending West Point and becoming a career Army officer, but although he passed the written test, he failed the eye exam and was denied entry. Undeterred from the desire to serve, in 1905 he memorized the eye chart and joined the National Guard.

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wLRV1 TIL At age 24, George Ellery Hale revolutionized solar observations with his invention of the spectroheliograph, making it possible to photograph the sun's prominences in full daylight. A spectroheliograph can tune-in to gases such as hydrogen and calcium, and photograph specific solar details
jG7n TIL Abraham Lincoln is in the wrestling hall of fame, losing only one out of about 300 matches and once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”
Oo9Y1 TIL Aleister Crowley infiltrated a pro-German propaganda newspaper in NYC during WW1 that was trying to keep America neutral. His incendiary writing helped undermine the propaganda movement and may have contributed to America joining the war.
0yeR TIL a 5 year old boy in India fell asleep on a train and ended up lost and alone in Calcutta. 25 years later he finally found his way home using Google Maps
8aQrG TIL during the construction of the Metro Red Line subway in Los Angeles, 2,000 fossils were discovered, some as old as 16.5 million years old. These included 39 species of extinct marine fish that had never before been discovered.