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TIL Soviet gulag prisoners would get large chest and back tattoos of Stalin and Lenin, not out of respect, but to avoid having internal organs damaged during beatings by guards who would not denigrate the images.

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e0y55 TIL that the depiction of angels as winged humanoids in robes was just a relatively recent idea. In the Bible, they were described as terrifying odd shapes and stuff. One was a burning wheel with multiple eyes and another was a four-faced being. This was why they would say 'fear not' to a human.
VMWY8 TIL John Prine was discovered as a singer by Roger Ebert.
d8O7E TIL after Larry Bird left Indiana University, he worked collecting trash in his home town. When leaving for college a 2nd time, this time at Indiana State, he told his co-workers, "I'll be going up there to get a little education. Then I'll be back and be boss of you guys."
j66jM TIL of Mt. Zion Cemetery, founded in 1916 in East Los Angeles, as a burial place for Eastern European Jews. Amongst the buried was Lamed Shapiro, noted Yiddish writer who died destitute. Inconclusive county records indicate no legal owner, with the last burial taking place in the late 2000s.
jo8Q TIL that not only is assisted suicide legal in Switzerland, the law does not require a physician to be involved and the recipient doesn’t have to be a Swiss national