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TIL as late as the 1850s, Santa Claus was said to deliver gifts on New Year’s Eve instead of Christmas Eve in many parts of America & Europe — ultimately, the widespread popularity of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” helped solidify Christmas Eve as the date

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via reddit.com

DlJg TIL: In WW2 there was a badass all-female squadron of bomber pilots whom the Germans nicknamed “The Night Witches”
1D78 TIL the inventor of leaded gasoline also invented Freon. Thomas Midgley, Jr. possessed “an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny.” and “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history.”
N7bBQ TIL that engineers have developed a ‘plastic’ which biodegrades in a month and won’t cause choking if eaten.
5VQRD TIL six percent of humans go out of their way to hit animals on the road and 89% of the people who did swerve to kill drove SUVs
GXd4 TIL “House of the Rising Sun” was originally written from the perspective of a woman. The “House” most likely referred to a brothel where she went to work off the gambling debts of her “sweetheart”