› added 12 years ago

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TIL in 1740, a 16-Year-Old English Boy, having been convicted of rape and murder, was hanged by the neck for 20 minutes. After being cut down, his body was sent to be dissected when he began to show signs of life. After making a full recovery, his sentence was commuted to exile.

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nWXro TIL: The Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite force in 4th century BC, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers. Each pair had an older erastês and a younger erômenos to represent the god Eros and embrace glorious death together. They train with wrestling and dance and were on the front lines.
D1P9V TIL that during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, many black citizens, widely believed to be immune to the disease, volunteered to deal with the dead and dying as white citizens fled the city. The immunity seems to have not actually existed, and blacks died at the same rates as whites.
D10Lr TIL that in 19th-century England, green indicated homosexual affiliations. Victorian gay men would often pin a green carnation on their lapel as popularized by openly gay author Oscar Wilde, who often wore one on his lapel.
pYa78 TIL The Undertaker was engulfed in flames during his entrance at 2010’s WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, but he remained in character for the entirety of the match, despite being on the receiving end of 1st and 2nd-degree burns and a chest burn that would bubble up during the match.
woXd7 TIL that Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church, aka Mormon Church, was assassinated in 1844 in Illinois by a mob. He was running for president at the time and is the first presidential candidate in US History to be assassinated