› added 11 years ago

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TIL that in 1959 nine skiers died due to a ‘compelling natural force’ in the Ural mountains. They were found in their underwear in sub-freezing temps, barefoot, highly radioactive with fatal blunt force wounds not possible by a human. No sign of a struggle and one victim was missing their tongue

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JYed8 TIL that one of the people convicted during the (thoroughly debunked) Satanic Panic of the 80s, which accused daycare workers of abusing children for Satanic purposes, is still in prison
w1E8 TIL that mathematician John Edmund Kerrich passed his time in Nazi captivity by flipping a coin 10,000 times. The total percentage of heads and tails flips varied wildly at first but gradually converged around 50/50, providing a demonstration of the Law of Large Numbers.
N7pY8 TIL in the South Korean town of Daesong-dong, residents are exempt from taxes and the mandatory military service in an effort by the government to keep people there despite being only 350m from the N Korean border. However, for security reasons, there is a curfew and headcount at 11pm every night.
M7OWB TIL Filipino movie star Corazon Noble was bayoneted 9 times by WWII Japanese soldier while trying to protect her 10 mo baby, who died after being sliced open 3 times, then helped testify in the postwar crime trials, and is still alive today.
j6PAE TIL Americans were forbidden to travel to China until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter made the decision to normalize relations with China