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TIL: In 1863, President Lincoln signed the “Order of Retaliation”. For every US soldier killed or enslaved in violation of the laws of war, a Confederate prisoner was to be killed or enslaved.

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d8OkB TIL Merv Griffin's wife, Julann came up with the format for Jeopardy! in response to the U.S. quiz show scandals of a few years earlier in 1963, when she proposed this idea to him: “Well, why don’t you give them the answers? And make people come up with the questions?”
N7Pje TIL Robert Tod Lincoln, son of President Lincoln was at his father’s death bed after being shot, witnessed the assassination of President Garfield, and was near by at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, when President McKinley was assassinated, although not a witness.
4v8g TIL the U.S. dollar symbol “$” was created on April 1, 1778 by Oliver Pollock
ANKag TIL that crocodiles and alligators are practically immortal
J1JV1 TIL this date in 1857, my Great Uncle, a Mormon leader, began distributing children under the age of 8 to families in central Utah to adopt. He and his other Mormon friends had slit the throats of all the other children and adults.