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TIL on September 11, 1857, a wagon train heading through Utah toward California was attacked by a Mormon Militia. The militia had disguised themselves as Indians, but once it was suspected that their cover was blown, the Mormons feigned a truce and slaughtered 120 men, women, and children.

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LZPd TIL immediately after Pearl Harbor the US treasury issued specialized ‘over print’ bank notes for the Hawaiian market. In the case of an invasion all the seized cash would be rendered worthless.
GY4OG TIL the US Navy placed a top secret tap on a Russian underwater communications cable in the Sea of Okhotsk after finding the cables' location was marked by signs along the remote Siberian shoreline saying "No anchoring - underwater cable".
QJX1M TIL that in the 60s, the CIA sponsored a Harvard study where an undergraduate student was humiliated and subjected to "brutalizing psychological experiments". The student who had the worse reaction to the experiment was Ted Kaczynski who later became the Unabomber.
mokv TIL Blackcurrant fruit was banned in the United States in 1911 because the plant carries a disease that affects native White Pine trees. Whole forests were wiped out due to the disease. Because of the ban, not lifted until 2003, the flavor is relatively unknown in the US.
NYa8 TIL that a pastor and his wife kidnapped a 4-month old baby to raise as a slave. They forced her to serve them and consistently beat, tortured, and molested her. She was rescued at 19 years old and had 410 scars on her body.