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TIL: St Patrick was English, and the "snakes" he drove out were likely Irish pagans, making St Patrick's Day a celebration of the English invading the Irish.

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MeXNW TIL scientists invented a genetically modified form of rice called "Golden Rice" to produce beta-carotene, to feed people in areas suffering from Vitamin-A deficiency
ne9LG TIL when Macy’s added giant balloons to the Thanksgiving parade in 1927, they were released at the end of the parade. Anyone who recovered and returned one got $100.
4J7N TIL Cambyses II of Persia used cats to fight a battle. Against the Egyptians in the battle of Pelusium in 525 BC he ordered his men to paint cats on their shields and brought 100’s of cats to his front lines. The Egyptian archers refused to fire on the cats as injuring one was punishable by death.
1amQd TIL in 1921 a Danish geologist discovered a tiny island on the northern coast of Greenland and named it "Kaffeklubben Island" after an informal academic club held at the Copenhagen Mineralogical Museum. He didn't know that he had just named the northernmost point of land on Earth after a coffee club
OG6d1 TIL Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni made a documentary about China that angered the CCP so much, they carried out an anti-Antonioni campaign that included televised denouncements, nationwide written criticisms and even anti-Antonioni songs taught to schoolchildren