› added 10 years ago

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TIL the FBI keeps detailed murder statistics based on race, gender, weapons and even the motive but they do not maintain statistics on killings by police or government agencies

Read more fbi.gov

via reddit.com

WKgo TIL in 1989 the supreme court ruled that executing the “mentally retarded” was constitutional with a 5-4 vote; it wasn’t until 2002 that the ruling was overturned. (Penry v. Lynaugh)
JY57Q TIL of a building in Silver Spring, Md. that has an inflatable shark on it in relation to Discovery Channels's Shark Week.
4NEX TIL that Ian Stevenson, psychiatrist and re-incarnation researcher, left a combination lock in a filing cabinet in the 1960s, with the hope of passing on the code after his death (in February, 2007). As of February, 2007, it remains unopened.
yQ08 TIL that in the summer of 2004 a man named Richard Clam waited 3 days for the shotgun seat of a helicopter giving grand canyon tours only to commit suicide by opening the door at 4000 feet and jumping from the aircraft.
VBlLD TIL that Cyrus the Great was so beloved, he was the only non-Jewish person in the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) to be identified as the messiah