› added 9 years ago

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TIL of the assassin Balthasar Gérard and his brutal execution, involving having his right hand burned off with a red-hot iron, his flesh torn from his bones with pincers, quartered and disemboweled alive, his heart torn from his chest and flung into his face, and finally his head chopped off.

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a84mL TIL that there are hundreds of different bamboo species, but only some are suitable for constructing large span structures
gMdx4 TIL in 2018, a social media influencer asked a Dublin hotel for a five-night free stay in exchange for publicity, and broke down in tears in a video when she was bluntly refused. The hotel responded by banning all influencers from its premises
nep9G TIL Bhagat Singh Thind gained US citizenship in 1918, only to be stripped of it 4 days later for being Indian. His 2nd attempt had the Supreme Court rule against him. He succeeded in his 3rd attempt. He was also the first turbaned (Sikh) member of the US Army, serving during WWI.
JY7Nk TIL "There once was a man from Nantuckit" originally wasn't vulgar at all. First published in 1902, it goes "There once was a man from Nantucket. Who kept all his cash in a bucket. But his daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man. And as for the bucket, Nantucket."
XENJ8 TIL that the Icelandic government banned the stationing of black American soldiers in Iceland during the Cold War so as to "protect Icelandic women and preserve a homogenous national body". After pressure from the US military, the ban was eventually lifted in the late 1960s.