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TIL that the funeral for Pope Pius XII was ruined by a botched embalming that caused his body to rapidly decompose. Mourners reported a foul odor, and there were reports that his skin turned green.

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rNnky TIL that during and after the Manhattan Project, the US government would inject unknowing subjects with radioactive materials to see how they reacted. Out of a likely 30 subjects, only 1 signed a consent form, which DID NOT fully explain the procedure and risks
9Y0OM TIL about a tiny strip of Belgian land inside Germany, where there once was a railroad that Belgium was awarded after WW1. Today its a cycling road. But the land still belongs to Belgium and both nations has agreed to keep it that way
ne087 TIL the first person to ever observe individual living sperm cells was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who collected a sample from his wife immediately after intercourse. In his 1677 letter to the Royal Society, “de Natis e semine genital Animalculis,” he describes a scene teeming with tiny “animalcules.”
ADpv7 TIL that in the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus and the Crucifixion, Jesus is shown as a donkey. The image is a Roman graffito scratched on a wall in Rome somewhere in the 2nd century, apparently to mock Christians.
woZlo TIL about "Cool Japan", a Japanese government initiative since 2010 that aims to promote Japan's attractiveness abroad. It does this by focusing on the aspects of Japanese culture that non-Japanese people find "cool" such as anime, games, cuisine etc.