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1093

TIL that during the filming of Poltergeist (1982), the clown doll nearly really killed Robbie Freeling due to an animatronic error when the clown's arm constricted too tightly around his neck. When the actor started protesting he couldn't breath, Spielberg thought he was improve acting.

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gMgdD TIL that an 81 year old man called Giles Corey, accused of being a wizard in 1692, was the only man in American history to be subjected to death by pressing in an attempt to get him to submit to trial by jury. It is said that his response to the torture was to tell them to add 'more weight.'
D59j TIL that as a child, Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped in a Comanche raid. 24 years later, she’d married a chief and had three children, including Quanah Parker the last free Comanche chief. She was “rescued” by Texas Rangers at 34 and spent 10 years trying to escape before starving herself to death.
VM01p TIL that a 14 year old boy named John once impersonated an MI5 agent online and "recruited" his best friend into the secret services. The initiation test was to murder... John. John became the first person in the UK to be convicted for inciting his own attempted murder.
ANXJB TIL that there was an urban legend about a Japan baseball team that had 18-year losing streak because in the 80's they threw the statue of Colonel Sanders into the river.
5YXn9 TIL that the word “hysteria” has sexist roots, coming from the Greek work “hystera,” meaning uterus. Therefore, being hysterical meant someone was experiencing “womanly problems.”