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TIL the summit of Mount St Helens, when it erupted in 1980, was actually private property owned by the Burlington Northern railroad. Subsequently, they donated the 650 acres of land (now a vast crater) to the US Forest Service.

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5YOB9 TIL that Wilson the Volleyball from the movie Castaway was inspired when screenwriter William Broyles, Jr deliberately stranded himself for one week on an isolated beach in the Sea of Cortez in which a volleyball washed up on shore.
M7b0W TIL that in 1863, when Harriet Tubman was under the command of Union Colonel James Montgomery, she became the first woman to lead a major military operation in the United States when she and 150 African American Union soldiers rescued more than 700 slaves in the Combahee Ferry Raid in the Civil War.
RWgj TIL that it currently costs 2000 lives a year to power Beijing, but only 200 lives a year to give twice the power to New York simply because of clean air laws. If China and America went full nuclear, those stats would drop to 0.6 and 1.2 lives a year respectively.
oRA7R TIL that Bullerby syndrome is a term referring to an idealization of Sweden, which may occur in German-speaking Europe. It consists of a stereotypical image of Sweden, usually with positive associations, including wooden houses, clear lakes, green forests, elk, happy people, and midsummer sunshine.
9YpXM TIL around 10% of internet traffic is encrypted by a code generated from the random motion of a wall of lava lamps in San Francisco.