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TIL For 60 years preceding the black death epidemic of 1347, Italy and Florence in particular were struck with repeated famines, partially because of a series extreme weather events, such as unprecedented floods and cold snaps which killed crops, each of them killing thousands of people.

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6mvl TIL that besides 9/11, the only other attack by an outside force on Washington D.C. was in 1814 when George Cockburn, an admiral in the British Royal Navy, literally walked into the White House, ate James Madison’s dinner, drank his wine, and then set fire to the place.
Al1d TIL that over 90% of fetuses diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome in the UK are terminated.
LLP9 TIL King Gustav III of Sweden commissioned an experiment to prove coffee was poisonous. Overseen by two doctors, a prisoner was forced to drink three pots of coffee a day until he died. Both doctors and the King died before the prisoner.
d8w58 TIL the founder of Yamaha carried his first prototype reed organ over his shoulder on a pole (by foot!) through the mountains on his way to show it off at the Tokyo Music Institute. After it was criticized harshly, Yamaha studied music theory for months in order to deliver an improved prototype.
BrExd TIL Cherokee Native Americans began purchasing African slaves in the 1800s to labor on European style plantations and in mines. By the time of the civil war they owned over 8000 slaves who made up 14% of the population in the Cherokee territory.