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TIL: Maryland was a slave state that sided with the Union, but in 1864, they actually had a referendum to abolish slavery. It narrowly failed - until the absentee ballots from the soldiers at the front came in, at which point it overwhelmingly succeeded.

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Z8QnR TIL Studies have concluded that all mammals get about a billion heartbeats per lifetime. They can use them at a rate of 1,000 per minute, like the shrew, or space them out into slow, ponderous beats, over many years, as is the case for the Grey whale.
rNJ84 TIL that from 1170 to 1512, "The Neck Verse" could save one from punishment for almost any crime in England. Literate accusees, or criminals who had simply memorised Psalm 51:3, would recite it to claim the "Benefit of Clergy", meaning they would be tried by the much more lenient church courts.
pRy8 TIL there exists a large online community of ‘scambaiters’: individuals who are devoted to tricking Nigerian 419 scammers into performing hilarious and often humiliating challenges.
45L6 TIL in 1995 a man in Australia attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a shotgun. When that didn’t work he used a pistol to shoot himself in the head, then used the shotgun again on his throat and finally died after one last shotgun blast to the heart
JY1e1 TIL that Kenny in South Park was based off of a childhood friend of Trey Parker's; his running gag of dying in most episodes was because he would skip school from time to time, only to show up days later.