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TIL that in 1988, Iran began a country-wide purge of political prisoners. People were beaten for missing daily prayers. One woman died after 22 days and 550 lashes, and the authorities certified her death as suicide because it was ‘she who had made the decision not to pray’.

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oRR1E TIL Brian O'Leary wrote his Ph.D. thesis on the physical properties of the Martian surface and was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in 1967 for a potential manned Mars mission when it was still in NASA's program plan
d8DoZ TIL that in 1871 Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and Ohio politician defending a man accused of murder, accidentally shot himself while demonstrating how the victim might have accidentally shot himself. His client was cleared.
xVxvg TIL that for a while in the 2010s, you could rent the country of Liechtenstein on Airbnb for $70,000 a night. This included hanging out with the monarch, temporary currency, the ability to rename streets and a key to country.
b9baQ TIL in 1987 Glad-Lock Bags financed a theatrically released movie called "Million Dollar Mystery", where the audience was handed a coupon outside the theater, and the movie had a tie in with their promotion, even having the character directly talk to the audience at the end about the promotion.
QJWra TIL Ireland threw away its piece of moon rock estimated to be worth millions. "It's still there under a couple of tonnes of trash. That could definitely be worth over $5m (£3.1m). I'll tell you where it's at. It's in the Finglas landfill dump in Dublin," Gutheinz says.