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TIL Johann Bücheler built Switzerland's first guillotine in 1836 after another carpenter became depressed. He earned 160 francs but became an outcast. To earn some money he build a bonsai guillotine and beheaded celery.

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7rAGP TIL: A Civil War General was both commander and quartermaster for his own company, and would send himself requests and even deny and argue with himself out of a sense of propriety
b9yA0 TIL Stork embroidery scissors were originally umbilical clamps used by midwives to restrict blood flow before cutting. Midwives began sharpening them as sewing scissors to use during the long awaited times before delivery.
9Y1EB TIL “Whoever [...] unlawfully secretes, destroys, detains, delays, or opens any letter[...] or mail,[...] delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General or the Postal Service, shall be fined [...] or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
7r67O TIL: Despite the widely-held belief that ICEE created the Blue Raspberry flavor in the early 1970's, there's record of the Gold Medal company, which made Sno-Kones, using the flavor as early as 1958 for their cotton candy.
4WBw TIL Room 101, the torture chamber in George Orwell’s 1984, was named after a meeting room at the BBC where Orwell would have to sit through tortuously boring meetings.