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TIL The word "thug" comes from a murderous cult of bandits in India called Thuggee, who worshipped the Hindu goddess of death and destruction

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m1GZM TIL that ancient Egyptians had a pregnancy test using wheat and barley. Women would urinate on bags of wheat and barley, and if the grains sprouted, it was considered a positive pregn aresult. Studies in the 20th century showed this method was surprisingly accurate due to hormonal changes.
kODJd TIL Sea mines off the coast of North Vietnam exploded spontaneously all at once; the cause, not determined until decades later, was a solar flare
dbGj TIL identical twin boys were raised as a brother-sister pair (botched circumcision). The truth came when the one being raised as girl suspected he was a boy; the parents admitted he was the subject of an experiment trying to prove gender identity was nurture, not nature. He later committed suicide.
GxYQ TIL that in the 1910s/20s a wolf spent 9 years massacring livestock in the town of Custer, South Dakota. He evaded hunters, traps, and poison. He kept two coyotes as servants/lookouts. And when he was finally killed the government issued a press release.
9YX7X TIL McDonald's lost more than half its employees over just 5 years(2013-2018)