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TIL The Legend of the Christmas Spider is an Eastern European folktale explaining tinsel on Christmas trees. A poor widow could not afford to decorate her tree. A spider covered it in cobwebs overnight. Morning sunlight turned the webs into gold and silver. They never lived in poverty again.

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Elrw TIL Richard Nixon cancelled the last three Apollo missions and did not fund any successor program, effectively ending NASA’s plan for a 100 person space station
ANR1w TIL in 1905, the Dawson City Nuggets of the Yukon Territory challenged the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup. The Dawson City hockey players embarked on an arduous 3 week journey (4,000 miles) via dog sled, bicycle, foot, train, and ship. On arrival, they were were roundly defeated (9–2 and 23–2)
D1MwJ TIL The architect behind the Eiffel Tower also worked on the Statue of Liberty
6EWWl TIL that pencils historically never had lead in them, they in fact always had graphite. When graphite was discovered, it was thought to be a form of lead, hence calling it "lead" in the pencil.
9J1B TIL that during the Iraq war in 2003, the U.S. Military planned to attach chickens atop Hum-Vees in order to detect chemical weapons. The project was named, Operation Kuwaiti Field Chicken (KFC). However, the project failed when 41 of the 43 chickens died within a week of their arrival.