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TIL that in England, suicide was considered a felony "punished at common law by burial in the public highway with a stake driven through his body." Attempted suicide was a misdemeanor.

Read more scholarship.law.unc.edu

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kOGgE TIL the modern wingsuit was invented by a French skydiver and base jumper, Patrick de Gayardon, who was also the 1st man to exit and return to the same aircraft in flight without a parachute
5MvD TIL purple is known as the colour of royalty because in ancient times the only way of producing the rare purple dye was from an extraction process of a murex snail by the Phoenicians. This process was very expensive and subsequently valued higher than gold.
0PXy TIL In WWII, a Polish soldier volunteered to be thrown in Auschwitz and escape to prove to the Allies that the Holocaust was real.
XE8vX TIL: The study of the origin of language has frustrated scientists for centuries. Due to the lack of empirical evidence to work with, the Linguistic Society of Paris banned discussion of the topic in 1866 as unproductive, a ban academic linguists observed until the late 20th century.
W7ggN TIL Saint Catherine was tortured on a wheel by the Emperor Maxentius for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. The wheel broke and Catherine was eventually beheaded instead. Her martyrdom is remembered in the firework called the 'Catherine Wheel'.