› added 5 years ago

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TIL Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, died in 455 BC after an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head, mistaking his head for a rock (some eagles kill tortoises this way, breaking them open). Aeschylus was spending most of his time outside to avoid a prophecy that he would die from a falling object.

dDvKE TIL that in the 18th and 19th centuries, cemeteries in Britain used "cemetery guns" to prevent grave robbing. These guns were set up near graves and were designed to discharge when triggered by a tripwire, stopping "body snatchers" who stole corpses to sell to medical schools.
OPeg TIL Richard McNair escaped 3 times from 3 different prisons. Hours after his third escape this time by mailing himself out in a crate, he was stopped by police. He managed to convince them he was out jogging and in town to help on a post-Katrina roofing project. (Video in comments)
NXwlQ TIL about the "invisible wall," an anomaly where workers encountered a strange "invisible wall" in the area under a fast-moving sheet of electrically charged polypropelene film in a factory. This "invisible wall" was strong enough to prevent humans from passing through.
GAnoN TIL about Catharism: A polytheistic branch of Christianity (12-14th century) with Satan and "God" being the gods of the old and new testaments, respectively. They were persecuted by the catholics and eradicated, but its existence is questioned by scholars, unsure if it was just heretical paranoia
PYOXV TIL that the King of Prussia had a personal army of 3000 tall men and admitted, "The most beautiful girl or woman in the world would be a matter of indifference to me, but tall soldiers—they are my weakness"