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TIL a circus elephant named Mary was hanged to death in Tennessee for allegedly murdering a hobo.

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98G6 TIL wood and fabric from the original 1903 Wright Flyer was taken aboard the Challenger… and recovered intact from the wreckage after the shuttle exploded
b9yKa TIL Neanderthals are responsible for the earliest known hominid-made structures, which are about 176,500 years old, consisting of 400 pieces of broken stalagmites arranged into 2 rings that are several metres across, deep inside a cave in France.
1abb8 TIL that conditions in Louisiana's infamous "Parchman Farm" prison were so bad that in 1952 thirty six prisoners severed their own Achilles tendons out of despair
9YwK6 TIL of the Marsh vs Alabama case where the Supreme Court deemed it not trespassing for jehovah's witnesses to walk and preech on privately owned sidewalks
W77kX TIL that the saying "I'll sleep when I'm dead." may have first been said by the hero Gilgamesh. This conversation with the god Shamesh is from the Epic of Gilgamesh, captured on clay tablets 4000 years ago in the world's oldest written story. Jump down to the beginning of Part III