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TIL Chicago sets its rail tracks on fire to prevent icing

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690em TIL that a professional grave robber in Cinncinati, Ohio who routinely sold corpses he had dug up to local medical schools once deliberately sold the body of someone who had died of smallpox to a school in order to infect medical students there who had played a trick on him.
9Mn6 TIL The success of Venice during the Middle Ages has been credited to its system of government which selected politicians by lottery
4XgBX TIL Wolf packs do not have an "alpha wolf", nor do younger wolves "overthrow" the leader.
wdo TIL More Vietnam War veterans committed suicide after serving than actually died in battle.
vPEoD TIL a coin toss determined the name for Portland, Oregon. It was named after the winner’s hometown. If he lost, it would have been named Boston, Oregon, after the other guy’s hometown.