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TIL one of the selling points for introducing the guillotine during the French Revolution was equality - commoners could now enjoy the comparatively quick and painless death of decapitation just like the nobility, and would no longer have to endure brutal deaths such as those caused by hanging.

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R4Ew TIL there is a species of deep sea fish that can swallow prey over twice its length and 10 times its mass whole. It sometimes swallows fish so large it can not digest them before they decompose, causing it to float to the surface. Its name is Black swallower.
gOD4 TIL That the Red Army defeated 75-80% of deployed German forces during WW2 / The US/UK only defeated 25-20%
neg99 TIL during the Cold War, the US built Camp Century, in Greenland - a supposed research facility under the Arctic ice that was actually part of a project to install nuclear missile sites. It was abandoned and environmental hazards including waste from its nuclear reactor are now under the ice.
epEJE TIL the first commercial airplane crash that killed more than 100 people happened in 1956 over the Grand Canyon. A Douglas DC-7 hit a Lockheed Super Constellation and crashed into a ravine slope at over 480 mph, while the Lockheed disintegrated into a cliff. All 128 people on the planes died.
Jdnk TIL that Mao and the Chinese Communist Party leaders had a quota of up to 4 deaths in a thousand, as they went about breaking up the social structure and land reform after the formation of the People’s Republic. Landlords were first up for executions.