› added 4 years ago

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TIL that after Booth assassinated Lincoln by shooting him the back of the head, the largest manhunt in US history, involving thousands of troops and countless civilians, tracked him down to a barn. As he attempted escape, Sergeant Boston Corbett killed Booth by shooting him in the back of the head.

6DDW TIL: The fictional company name “Acme” became popular in the 1920s, when numerous companies wanted to be at the top in alphabetized business telephone directories.
R7gW6 TIL that despite the common misconception, in most countries ship captains are not actually able to perform marriages, and the United States Navy had to make a rule specifically forbidding captains from doing so.
e0Xln Til about Scurvy, chronic vitamin C deficiency. "Bones that had previously broken rebreak. Old wounds open up. This is because one of the major effects of scurvy is that the body can no longer produce collagen, the glue of the body’s cells"
8aKxG TIL that Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, a Great Depression-era gangster and notorious bank robber, endeared himself to the public by destroying mortgage papers at the banks he robbed, freeing many from their debts.
DQ1wg TIL that one of the winners of the VH1 Big Backyard BBQ contest in the 90's, Raymond Holcomb, who had muscular dystrophy, was hit with a tax bill of $2,496, because the $11,700 concert was seen by the IRS as "taxable income." John Mellencamp's management company agreed to work something out to help.