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TIL that the Bayanzi tribe of the Congo would execute via decapitation with a twist. While alive, the head of the condemned would be connected to a springy sapling so that when it was cut off, it would be thrown through the air “With the force of a bomb”.

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x6p80 TIL About ‘The Misty Experiment’ The Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
66LJ TIL the Japanese have a word Tsujigiri (辻斬) which means to test out a new sword on a random passerby.
G8wE TIL there is a programming language called Malbolge, specifically designed to be almost impossible to use. When it was created it was so difficult to understand that it took two years for the first Malbolge program to appear.
45oX TIL the ancient Babylonians worked out that there are solar eclipses that occur 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours apart. This period, 223 lunar cycles, is called the Saros cycle. The 1999 eclipse and this year’s eclipse are Saros cycle solar eclipses.
9l57 TIL that Pope Francis worked as a bouncer in a Buenos Aires bar to earn money as a student.