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TIL: A 150-foot-deep Texas sinkhole discovered in 1821 became a mass grave in the Civil War era. Bodies of 5 to 36 accused Union sympathizers and postwar supporters of the Reconstruction were dumped in after lynching or other summary execution. In 1999 Dead Mans Hole became part of public parkland.

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4kVx6 TIL about Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk. He was responsible for rescuing a team of French nuclear scientists and the entire world stockpile of heavy water from France during WW2. He also served as part of an unexploded bomb detachment, successfully tackling 34 unexploded bombs
negaG TIL Colonizing Venus is not only possible but actually has the potential to be more practical than colonizing Mars
AN6N7 TIL: Gunpei Yokoi was a legendary game designer at Nintendo who designed the GameBoy and produced Metroid. His design philosophy was "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology" which emphasizes fun novel gameplay over new tech. He died after getting hit by a 2nd car when he exited to inspect damage.
JYBLm TIL Abraham Lincoln replied to a critic questioning emancipation by writing: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that"
4kbgR TIL the British Columbia Lottery Corp. was ordered to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars to gamblers whose jackpots were withheld because they had won them after volunteering to ban themselves from casinos. The ruling only covered a 14 month period due to a change in law in 2010.