› added 1 year ago

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TIL when the mistress of Roman Emperor Commodus found her name on a list of people Commodus wanted executed, she and a few others tried to poison him, but Commodus vomited it up, so they had his wrestling partner, who trained him for his gladiator appearances, strangle him while he was in the bath.

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NXwwP TIL that twelve years after publishing a book reviewing the history of political corruption in West Virginia, former West Virginia Supreme Court justice Allen Loughry was convicted in federal court of eleven counts related to corruption and sentenced to two years in prison.
QNJvk TIL that the US military developed nuclear warheads meant to destroy other incoming nuclear warheads. The small 150 lbs warhead would send a neutron flux that would disable any other incoming warhead. Essentially, they would nuke their airspace to prevent another explosion a thousand times larger.
1al9V TIL the Honeycrisp apple was thrown away by the University of Minnesota research team and rescued from a trash pile by one of the researchers.
4Xn7R TIL about sickle (or scythe) trees, in which scythes are often found embedded, from when men hung them in trees before going to fight the Civil War
p8Wkb TIL that Joanne Barnaby was being stalked by a wolf in the forest when she came across a bear that was separated from her cub. Exhausted, she decided to stand between the bear and her cub in the hopes that the bear would find the wolf threatening. It did, attacking the wolf while she escaped.