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8aKk8 TIL modern fire departments were the creation of insurance companies. Insurance companies hired private brigades to put out fires for their policy holders. Each insurance company had their own brigade and would extinguish the fires of their customers while leaving non-customer properties to burn.
KOMmQ TIL that in 1966, Kenneth McDuff murdered three people and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life, and he was paroled in 1989. He went on to murder at least four more people, was caught in 1992, once again sentenced to death, and executed in 1998.
ANxxa TIL the first ever text message in history is "Merry Christmas"
P1Wbw TIL Abacus, a NY Chinese bank and 2,531st largest in the US, was the only US bank indicted for the 2008 financial crisis. An isolated incident of laundering money turned into an indictment for mortgage fraud. "They were the ones singled out." Abacus was found not guilty on all 240 charges.
9wgEX TIL that the Imperial House of Japan is the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world, having been traditionally founded in 660 BC, while the oldest historically-attested evidence of the dynasty dates to 539 AD, which was the start of Emperor Kinmei, who was the 29th Emperor to rule.