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TIL the origin of Jackass came when Johnny Knoxville tested self-defense equipment on himself. This included him being maced, tasered, and finally shooting himself in the chest while wearing a bullet-proof vest. MTV has never allowed this stunt to be included on any of the Jackass episodes or DVDs.

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6EkJl TIL that what American businessman and astronomer Percival Lowell mistakenly thought were “spokes” on the surface of Venus were actually shadows of the blood vessels in his eyes cast on his retina, his telescope essentially functioning as a giant ophthalmoscope.
4Xo7g TIL 'The Father of Modern Gynecology', James Marion Sims, perfected his surgical techniques by operating without anesthesia on enslaved black women.
nWXkd TIL about the Orgone Accumulator, a 1950s device claiming to attract massless, omnipresent substance healing energy. When the FDA was investigating the device, they noted that one purchaser, a college professor, knew it was "phony" but found it "helpful because his wife sat quietly in it for 4 hrs"
8e18 TIL in the German Army, soldiers are obliged to disobey any order they think would violate human dignity. Few, if any other armies have this rule
jrbv TIL there is a theory that suggests the years AD 614–911 did not occur and that in fact the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto III, directed chroniclers to fabricate historical records and figures, such as Charlemagne, for these years. If thought to be true, it would currently be AD 1716, not 2013.