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TIL of "peine forte et dure", a type of torture used in the common law legal system when a person remained silent upon questioning. It consisted of progressively heavier stones placed upon the chest until either a plea was entered, or the person died. It’s been legal for ~500 years, until 1772.

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166ND TIL there was an exponential increase in childhood cancer in Mexico due to the purchase of tons of milk from Ireland, which were contaminated due to the radioactivity caused by the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
x6LMg TIL two shows on FOX featured characters with similar names: That '70s Show had Eric Forman, while House had Eric Foreman. There was no crossover, and the episodes didn't air in the same season, but Kurtwood Smith was a supporting actor in the former (98-06) and a guest actor in the latter (2007)
yD7p TIL Retta’s (Dona Meagle from Parks and Recreation) aunt, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is the President of Liberia; the first female head of state in Africa.
xVak1 TIL the computer program that created the THX "Deep Note" (before a movie screening) was coded to be random. The audio you hear was recorded one time and can never be recreated exactly by that computer again.
d8wMB TIL that Queen Elizabeth II is considered the first head of state to have used electronic mail. On March 26, 1976, sent her first email while taking part in a network technology demonstration in Malvern, England. The message was transmitted over ARPANET, the forerunner of the modern Internet.