› added 3 days ago

TIL about Dr. Benjamin Rush who provided the Corps of Discovery with 600 "Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills," powerful laxatives containing 50% mercury, colloquially called "thunderclappers." The high mercury content provided a tracer that has allowed the Corps' campsites to be identified via soil testing.

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nQnP TIL After the war, about 5000 Irish soldiers that joined the Brits to fight Hitler were treated as outcasts and stripped of all pay and pension rights
xldb TIL that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s family filed a civil case in 1999, alleging that his assassination was the result of a police/federal conspiracy, and won. Their restitution? $100, to prove it was not for financial gain.
0d9d5 TIL of '27 Club', a list of celebrities who died at the age of 27, because there exists a statistical spike (particularly musicians) who die at this age. There doesn't exist any pattern, whatsoever, for the cause of death.
QJloe TIL of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear plant worker and whistleblower. On November 13, 1974, she set out to meet a reporter to go public with evidence of extensive safety violations. She was later found dead; her car appeared to have been run off the road and the documents she had with her were missing.
Oo0X TIL Catholic Priests molesting children was such a problem in the 20th Century, in 1962 the church issued an instruction called “Crimen Sollicitationis”, reiterating another instruction issued in 1922, threatening excommunication for any clergy or victim that made a case public