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TIL After the brutal sack of Rome by the imperial mercenaries in 1527, Pope Clement VII was forced to pay 400,000 ducats in exchange for his life. Despite the ransom, he was imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo, where he remained for 6 months before he managed to escape the prison dressed as a peddler

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4kdxN TIL in 2011, a 29-year-old Aussie bartender discovered an ATM error that let him take out more cash than he had in the bank. For four-and-a-half months, he went on a spending spree and blew through approximately $1.6 million of the bank's funds.
69Y88 TIL that virga clouds produce precipitation that evaporates before reaching the ground. These streaky clouds are often seen trailing below larger cloud formations, giving the appearance of wispy tails. Virga can occur with both rain and snow, they often create dramatic, beautiful visual effects.
5V9Qr TIL that Rüppell's griffon vulture has the highest documented altitude of any bird at 36k feet. Unfortunately this information was discovered after a Boeing 747 took the bird into the engine over western Africa.
X0v5k TIL Mel Carnahan was the first person to be elected to the Senate of the United States posthumously because the Missouri election law did not allow for his name to be removed from the ballot.
DX1e TIL There is evidence that many prisoners were abandoned in their cells during Hurricane Katrina, while the guards sought shelter. Hundreds of prisoners were later registered as “unaccounted for.”