› added 2 years ago

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TIL referees would respond to Dikembe Mutombo's gesture of waving his index finger after a block with a technical foul. To avoid the foul, Mutombo started waving his finger at the crowd or TV cameras after a block as that is not considered taunting per NBA rules.

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OGe8X TIL Georgios Papanikolaou, a Greek doctor introduced a low-cost, easily performed screening test for early detection of cancerous and precancerous cells, the "Pap test" saving lives of million women
awVwA TIL: Bees are not supposed to die after they sting. They usually sting away as many times as they want but only die when they sting humans. This is because their barbed stinger cannot cope with fleshy human skin, tearing away their abdomen when they try to pull away after stinging.
xVWx1 TIL Some of the early Titanic lifeboats were launched half-full because many passengers preferred to stay on the warm ship, assuming that nearby ocean liners would rescue them in time.
mxbNo TIL a Marine Corps veteran by the name of John "Chick" Donohue snuck into Vietnam in 1967 during the ongoing war simply to deliver beer to his friends in combat.
d8vGj TIL: The Cheka, the soviet secret police would skin people alive, have people tied to planks and then pushed slowly into furnaces or tanks of boiling water, children as young as 8 would be executed.