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TIL of The Beetle (1897), a novel about a shapeshifter in London. It was so popular upon release, that it sold six times as many copies as Dracula.

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EgbdV TIL about Carbidshieten "Carbide Shooting", a Dutch New Years Eve tradition of using carbide + water in a makeshift basketball cannons. Similar to potato guns.
dDy7B TIL William Thomas Turner, the captain of the RMS Lusitania when it was sunk by a U-Boat in 1915, was also captain of the troopship SS Ivernia when it was sunk by a U-Boat in 1916. His son, Percy Wilfred Turner, was killed in 1941 when his ship, the Jedmoor, was sunk by a U-Boat.
X0neE TIL in the 1960s, gym students at La Sierra High School in CA, faced grueling physical challenges and were ranked by their shorts color: white for rookies, gold for elites, and Navy Blue for the rarest. Navy Blue required 34 pull-ups and carrying someone 5 miles. Only 19 students ever earned it.
nWWK9 TiL that upon finishing the sci fi film "Devil Girls From Mars", a then 12 year old Octavia Butler concluded that she could write a better story. Butler went on to win multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and became the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
60wl TIL an island, located between Australia and New Caledonia, was charted on maps for over a century until a crew of scientists sailed to the location and found it didn’t exist.