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65

TIL about The Crédit Mobilier scandal. A two-part fraud conducted from 1864 to 1867 by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company in the building of the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad.

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4DYa TIL that people accused of witchcraft who underwent trial by water actually had ropes to pull them out if they sank. The notion that the ordeal was devised as a situation without any possibility of live acquittal, even if the outcome was ‘innocent’, is a modern exaggeration.
Zkvp TIL Elijah Wood crossed South Africa’s Victoria Falls on ropes, and was the first person to do so
PYLdV TIL that the Peloponessian War between Athens and Sparta only ended in 1996 - no treaty was signed when the fighting ended in 404 BC, so 25 centuries later the mayors of the cities signed a pact saying "Today we express our grief for the devastating war between the two cities and declare its end"
78yxX TIL of a law for how to handle simultaneous deaths. The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act says that if (for example) a husband and wife die in a plane crash without a will, the husband died before the wife and the wife died before the husband. Their estate is divided evenly.
D1E0Y TIL of William A. Jackson, a former slave who had served Jefferson Davis. He routinely observed communications between Davis and other Confederate officials. When he fled north in 1861, he gave the Union detailed information about Confederate military deployments, supply issues, and planning.