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TIL that on Saint Patrick’s Day began as a “feast day” in honor of the anniversary of the day he died. To honor him, Christians could put aside their Lenten restrictions on food and alcohol consumption on this day, which is why excessive drinking has become so permanently linked to the celebration.

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dbWB TIL for April Fools Day in 1998, Burger King took out a full-page ad in USA Today introducing a Whopper designed especially for lefties. The new burger would contain the same ingredients as the original, but rotated 180°. Thousands of customers swarmed BK restaurants requesting the “lefty” Whopper.
DQL1v TIL that in 1963, a cat named Félicette became the first (and only) cat to be sent into space. Unlike other animals, she safely returned to Earth after helping gather crucial data for scientists.
VBwR4 TIL Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who started the persecution of Catholics, died in 1616 from over-eating tempura, a dish invented by Catholics during Lent while they were visiting Japan in 1543, which was the same year the Shogun had been born.
PgJJ TIL in 2009, a 9yo girl suffered a life-threatening pregnancy as a result of being repeatedly raped by her Step-Father. After the pregnancy was terminated, the performing Doctor and the girl’s mother were excommunicated by the Catholic Church. The Step-Father was not.
GrLj TIL that cab drivers in London have much larger hippocampi, which is the brain region responsible for the formation of new memories, than other people.