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TIL that during the first battle of the American Civil War, hundreds of civilians from Washington DC brought picnic baskets and came to watch the battle, sure the Union would easily win. The Union lost, and the civilians were caught in the retreat of the Northern army.

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KO7m9 TIL about the Goiânia accident, one of the worst nuclear disasters. Fascinated locals began playing with glowing dust after opening a stolen radioactive capsule: lighting it on fire, applying it to their bodies, & consuming it. Up to 112,000 may have been exposed, & some died.
kOdom TIL that not so long ago Japanese women who remained unmarried after the age of 25 were referred to as “Christmas cake,” a slur comparing them to old holiday pastries that cannot be sold after December 25.
JKJQ TIL that a book claiming that sunscreen, not the sun, is the number one cause of skin cancer, and that AIDS is “one of the greatest hoaxes and deceptions ever perpetrated on the American public” was #1 on the New York Times best-seller list and sold 5 million copies in the U.S.
AdJa TIL -In the 1880s, a baboon worked as a signalman for nine years on a south african railroad. He was paid in brandy and never made a mistake.
EekX TIL that in 1517, a nobleman offered to pay a corrupt Catholic monk for an indulgence in order to forgive him of a future sin. The monk quickly agreed and granted it, but as he rode out of town the nobleman attacked and beat him. He then told the monk that was the future sin he had in mind.