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TIL one of Stanford University's Founders may have been killed by its first President

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E1pxp TIL when in 2013 5-year-old Alanah Poullard asked the US President for an excuse note during a Wounded Warriors and families tour of the White House on a school day, the President ended up writing that excuse note.
OoAoX TIL The name "Sri Lanka" does not come from the fact that it is by far the biggest island off India's coast (Lanka just means "island"). The honorific "Sri" came with the independence movement in British Ceylon. So the name doesn't mean "Lord Island" or "Great Island" but rather "Sovreign Island".
R5YJj TIL the British Empire banned slave trading in 1807 and used the Royal Navy to enforce it. Any ship caught with enslaved people onboard would be fined £100 a head. As a result, captains often ordered them thrown overboard to avoid the fine whenever they saw Royal Navy ships approaching.
4XeR TIL that an orangutan named Fu Manchu repeatedly escaped from his cage at the zoo using a key he had fashioned from a piece of wire. Every time his zookeepers inspected him, he hid the key in his mouth.
gM5D9 TIL that Father Damien, a Roman Catholic priest, selflessly helped the people with leprosy quanrantined in Kalaupapa, Kingdom of Hawai'i until his death from leprosy itself