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TIL The first mail-order brides were known as "tobacco wives" as the men who married them had to reimburse the Virginia Company with 120 pounds of "good leaf tobacco".

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1nGd TIL: Gypsy is actually short for Egyptian.
a84VJ TIL an oil platform called Piper Alpha, located in the North Sea about 120 miles (190 km) north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland, exploded and sank on 6 July 1988, killing 165 of the men on board.
4kpn6 TIL a man suffering from fatal familial insomnia, a condition whereby you become biologically incapable of sleep, attempted vitamin therapy, sensory deprivation, narcoleptics, and anesthesia to sleep, which prolonged his life by 12 months.
VoZp TIL that horseshoe crab blood coagulates instantly when encountering one part per trillion of E Coli or Salmonella, and is used medically for detecting those. It also happens to be blue when oxygenated, and clear in the veins. (Props to Unidan for starting the bunny trail)
epEZn TIL that Vermont was its own independent government from 1777 to 1791.