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TIL in 1864, the Confederate Army forced Frederick, Maryland, to pay $200,000 or be burned to the ground. The town had to borrow the money from local banks and didn’t finish paying off the loans until 1951.

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5NMR TIL in the 1980’s, over 6,000 Hemophiliacs living in the US were given HIV-tainted blood by health care companies still active today.
OG9BR TIL that Abraham Lincoln was so convinced that he was going to lose the election of 1864 that he asked Frederick Douglass to lead scouts into the South to free as many slaves as possible before the new president took office.
XJeX TIL Pope John Paul II snuck out of the Vatican more than 100 times to go skiing in the Italian Alps without anyone noticing.
v1QkK TIL the word vodka means "water" in Slavic. The word originates from court documents from Poland in 1405. In the early days, spirits were used as medicine - a Polish physician wrote in 1534 that vodka could serve "to increase fertility & awaken lust"
lDBV TIL a Virginia Judge left his bench, removed his robe, bit off a piece of a criminal defendant’s nose, and spat it on the floor while court was in session.