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TIL During the US Civil War, General Sherman implemented the scorched earth policy by having his men pile all deed books in front of the courthouse and burn them. The logic was that the big plantations would not be able to prove land ownership.

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mx6dy TIL that, during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the extreme heat caused one man's brain to turn to glass.
YBev TIL a castaway Japanese seaman wrote of his ordeal in a message in a bottle, which he threw into the ocean in 1784. It washed up in 1935 in the village where he was born.
VBmw8 TIL that Orcas are the largest species in the dolphin family (Delphinidae).
8aZbK TIL about Douglas Bader a pilot who lost both his legs in a plane crash in 1931 but went on to become a legendary pilot in WWll - captured by the Germans and given prosthetic legs - the first thing he did with them was try to escape!!!
P6YE TIL the tiny island of Nauru became the world’s richest country per capita in the 60s by mining its phosphate reserves. The country blew it on spending & bad investments (e.g.“Leonardo the musical”). It’s now the ~135th richest country, with 40% diabetes rate and a wrecked environment due to mining.