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TIL Between the 13th and 18th Centuries it was common to have criminal trials with animal defendants. Animals on trial were most often pigs, bulls, horses, and cows or pests such as rats and weevils. They were routinely provided with lawyers and if convicted animals were executed or exiled.

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p8vMN TIL of "poop" pills - capsules containing only bacteria from donors' poo which are used to treat gut infections. They have no scent, taste and are as effective as traditional fecal transplants while being much cheaper.
lovL5 TIL that In October 1971, a physicist and an astronomer took 4 cesium-beam atomic clocks aboard commercial airliners. They flew twice around the world and when reunited, the sets of clocks were found to disagree according to the predictions of the relativity theory
8aRWV TIL that the New York City owns an abandoned 22-acre island less than one mile from Manhattan. It has been abandoned since 1963 with no current plans of development.
16DV7 TIL that Marsha M Linehan, the creator of Dialect Behavior Therapy (DBT) was once an institutionalized patient who was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia beginning her "descent into hell". At 18 she could legally leave on her own and went on to be a professor in psychology, diagnosed with BPD.
gpl8 TIL Abuse of the smoke signal is known to have contributed to the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, 8th century BCE. King You of Zhou had a habit of fooling his warlords with false warning beacons in order to amuse his queen. When an actual rebellion occurred, no one came to the aid of the king.