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TIL about "Prairie Madness" which affected settlers, especially immigrants, in the prairies in the 1800s. It was mental breakdown due to the isolation of living in such a remote land. It mostly disappeared when telephones and railroads became available.

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BvBx TIL the Wright Bros, after numerous incident-free tests, were poised to make their pitch for the Army airplane contract. With Lt. Thomas Selfridge as passenger, the plane crashed, injuring Orville and killing Selfridge, resulting in the first airplane fatality. They received the contract anyway.
j6nOQ TIL Korea crowd-sourced down payment to the IMF using private gold in the late 90s
naw9 TIL that nuclear power prevented an average of over 1.8 million deaths between 1971-2009 as a result of lower air pollution from reduced coal usage according to NASA
R7Dyj TIL that in 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, the Kingdom of Tonga was among the first to declare war against Germany. Subsequently, in result of a public campaign the society of Tonga funded two Spitfire fighter aircrafts. The Kingdom was ruled at that time by queen Sālote Tupou III
Z8P5a TIL Many families in San Francisco's Chinatown make $30,000 or $20,000 a year. $117,400 for a family of four is now considered “low income" in the city