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TIL the Lincoln Highway (1910s) made driving across America easier. However, muddy or flooded roads were expected and drivers needed camping gear. The road guide included tips for each town. E.g. Fish Springs, Utah travelers could "build a sagebrush fire" for a local team to find/rescue them.

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via reddit.com

gMmlD TIL the tallest wave ever recorded reached 524m when it struck land. This is the height of building 1 of the World Trade Center (including the antenna)
nXvG TIL that there was a hobbyist photographer who took tens of thousands of pictures in the 50s, mostly in Chicago. She never showed them to anyone or even bothered to develop them and she remained unknown until her death. Now she is considered one of the most important street photographers ever.
AN9B TIL Nathan Fillion in 1998 performed in his first major motion picture, Saving Private Ryan, as the wrong (Minnesota) Ryan.
NmM8 TIL for the film Dogma, Kevin Smith warned Jason Mewes that he needed to be on point due to the involvement of “real actors,” such as Alan Rickman. As a result, Mewes memorized his, and every other character’s dialogue in the screenplay because he “didn’t want to piss off that Rickman dude”.
VMKG8 TIL In 2005 war games, a Swedish submarine called HSMS Gotland was able to sneak through the sonar defenses of the US Navy Aircraft Carrier Ronald Reagan and its entire accompanying group, and (virtually)sank the US Aircraft carrier on its own and still got away without getting detected.