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TIL thousands of "low head dams" (aka "killer dams" or "drowning machines") were built on US waterways in 1800s, are nearly invisible from upstream, have killed hundreds of people, often serve no modern purpose, and for all that, are largely unregulated

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l7e5A TIL a man accused during the Salem witch trials refused to enter a plea, preventing him from being tried. In an attempt to elicit one, he was tortured by pressing, a technique by which the victim is slowly crushed. Each time he was asked for a plea, his only response was "more rocks".
rRpDM TIL The Philippines sent 1,000 troops to the Korean war as crew for US tanks. Tanks never came and they were forced to face 40,000 North Korean and Chinese soldiers during the Great Spring Offensive and managed to hold their portion of the line and get surrounded as the line beside them collapsed.
E1pPd TIL the invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was initially met with public skepticism. While people were concerned about magic, the public didn't initially believe witches gathered to worship demons, have orgies, eat babies, and perform other abominable acts.
mxvZR TIL in Germany in 1938, while searching for a water source for a town, workers found an ancient spring feed line to a Roman aqueduct which had supplied Cologne 60 miles away. The feed was simply connected into the modern water network. To avoid damage to the spring no archaeological work was done.
yQW6e TIL Yoko Ono, Nina Simone, Quincy Jones, Willie Nelson, Carol Burnett, James Brown, Joan Rivers, Gene Wilder, Julie Newmar, Roman Polanski, Conway Twitty, Larry King, and Emperor Akihito were all the same age, born in 1933.