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TIL that 18th century France developed a visual telegraph system. Using a series of towers topped with adjustable beams that would display a message and instructions on the next tower to relay it to, messages could be sent across the country in a mere matter of hours, long before electricity.

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DQAne TIL When en route to prison following an arrest for witchcraft in 1619, Joan Flowers asked for bread as a substitute for the Eucharist. She claimed that something so blessed could not be consumed by a witch. She choked and died after the first bite.
O4A4 TIL of the London Monster who pricked his victims in the buttocks. When people realised that the Monster attacked mainly beautiful women, some women began to claim that they had been attacked to gain attention and sympathy. Some even faked wounds.
6EdJw TIL that the backup crew for Apollo 12 (who later crewed Apollo 15) played a joke on the main crew by inserting Playboy photos into their wrist mounted checklists worn on the surface of the moon. Nude photos went to the moon 14 years before the first US woman in space.
4XPdb TIL Lenin's body was embalmed and put on display in his Mausoleum on the Red Square, next to the walls of the Kremlin
m1NdE TIL that honey never spoils, and edible honey has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs dating back over 3,000 years.