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TIL President Grant was renowned for his mastery of horsemanship. From an early age he could train and lead whole teams of horses by himself, and he set equestrian records at West Point that stood for decades

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eOwJ TIL: Finlands current president survived 2004 tsunami in Thailand by climbing a utility pole with his son.
W7kgo TIL Pope Gregory XVI opposed gas lighting and railways, believing that they would create commerce and lead to liberal reforms. Gregory XVI in fact banned railways in the Papal States, calling them chemins d'enfer ("road to hell", a play on the French for railroad, chemin de fer, "iron road")
x6e8B TIL the reason the Chicago World’s Fair buildings don’t exist anymore is that they were made of [fortified] Plaster of Paris
rRwYw TIL that gorillas share 98.3% of their genetic code with humans, making them our closest cousins after chimpanzees and bonobos.
P1nkJ TIL that during the 2017 Mexico City earthquake, a TV network fabricated live coverage of a fake survivor trapped in the ruins of her primary school for ratings. After the hoax was exposed, a rival TV network mocked them by airing an old Simpsons episode where Bart pulls off a similar hoax.