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TIL that JFK had his cabinet staff read "The Guns of August", a book about the start of WWI in August 1914, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1963, saying "I am not going to follow a course which will allow anyone to write a comparable book about this time, "The Missiles of October."

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Lkd1m TIL Malaria, which is caused by the parasitic protozoa plasmodium, is the deadliest disease of all time. No disease, including the plague or smallpox, has killed more people. It has also killed more people than all wars, famines, and natural disasters combined.
epaVE TIL: A US Air Force cadet was reading about WWII when he stumbled upon the name of a janitor that worked at his USAF Academy. That’s how it was discovered at the academy that that janitor was a Medal of Honor recipient.
AD4Yx TIL That the victims of Pompeii had near-perfect dental health due to a low-sugar diet and a local water source rich in fluorine.
6MQY TIL the Soviet Union and the United States were originally in talks to go to the moon together during the Cold War. Nikita Khruschev was poised to accept the plan but then President Kennedy was assassinated. The Soviets did not trust Vice President Johnson, so Khruschev rejected the plan.
e0D44 TIL John Steinbeck’s dog, Toby, ate his manuscript of Of Mice and Men. There was no other draft. Steinbeck said of the incident, “I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn’t want to ruin a good dog for a ms (manuscript), I’m not sure is good at all.”