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TIL in WW2 escape compasses for the RAF were sometimes hidden by being made to look like a button (unscrewing the top revealed the small compass). When the Germans found out, they changed to a reverse thread, so trying to unscrew the button the usual way tightened it instead, keeping it hidden.

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16gX8 TIL of Pope Stephen VI who instigated the Cadaver Synod in which he ordered a trial of deceased Pope Formosus on grounds of acting as Bishop after he was deposed. The corpse was exhumed, propped up upon a throne. A deacon stood behind answering questions as the deceased. Formosus was found guilty.
KYG9R TIL that in Russia, posers can rent iPhone boxes or bouquet of flowers to pretend they've got one
rRPB1 TIL that German chemist Friedrich Wöhler was the first person to synthesize an organic compound in 1828 by accidentally crystalizing urea. This refuted a widespread belief (vitalism) that organic compounds contained a mysterious, soul-like "vital spark" and could never be synthesized.
x68wB TIL Girolamo Segato was an Italian archeologist who invented a technique to artificially petrify, or mineralize, human corpses. He destroyed all his notes before his death and his technique has never been replicated.
l7Y0a TIL that the mom and dad from Family Ties, Meredith Baxter Birney and Micheal Gross, were born on the same day. June 21, 1947