In Quebec, young boys of the Algonquin Indian Tribe were caged and fed the hallucinogen, wysoccan, to usher them into manhood. Considered more powerful than LSD, the drug was used to force adolescents to forget memories of their childhood.

In Bali, it is customary for boys and girls to have their upper teeth filed as part of their coming of age rites. Sharp front teeth are believed to symbolize coarseness, so when the teeth are filed the trait is thought to be lost. Teeth filing is a very common, strictly regulated practice.

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The Grishneshwar Temple in Indian state of Maharashtra is the site of a very unusual – and potentially dangerous – religious ritual. As the name suggests, babies between the ages of one and two are thrown from a 50-foot tower, with men positioned beneath to catch the babies on sheets. The 700 year old ceremony is believed to make children more intelligent, luckier and healthier and is practiced by both Muslims and Hindus in the region.

Sky burials were an exclusive and unusual religious ceremony in Tibet. The practice involved dissecting the deceased’s body and scattering the pieces on a mountaintop to decompose or be consumed by birds. Most Tibetans follow Buddhist traditions, which dictate the human body is merely a vessel and can be discarded, thus why the practice was popular. The practice was ultimately outlawed, but can still be performed with the family’s permission.

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If betrayal by numbers is anything to go buy, Austrian army officer Alfred Redl takes the cake. Before and during World War 1, Redl worked as a spy for the Russian military and sold secrets about the Austrian army. Redl leaked the Austrian invasion plan for Serbia, which Russia in turn sold to Serbia. He continued to double cross his countrymen by supplying the wrong information about Russia’s military strength and exposing Austrian agents to the enemy. The results were catastrophic for the Austrian army: his actions contributed to the deaths of half a million Austrians. Redl committed suicide after Austrian police discovered his betrayal.

Harold Cole was the deputy commander of Scotland Yard during the end of the World War 2 and is considered one of the worst traitors of the war. He was responsible for divulging information to the Gestapo about the French resistance escape lines, which he had helped create. He also divulged information about the French resistance leaders to the Axis, resulting in the death of at least 150 people. He was shot dead after capture by French police in 1946.

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Seventy years ago today, minutes after the Japanese attacked American forces at Pearl Harbor, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet sent out the above message to other US military forces.