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TIL Valentine's Day may have roots in the Roman festival of Lupercalia. At the festival, naked priests, smeared in the blood of a goat would parade through the streets with strips of bloody goat hide, whipping any women they saw. Men randomly drew women's names from jars to be coupled with.

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YpK8A TIL Charles Joseph Minard was French Civil engineer and pioneer of info-graphics. Minard is famous for his flow graphs, one notably showing the trade of French wine. Information designer Edward Tufte said his map of the French invasion of Russia, "may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn"
GYR4Q TIL a man once broke into Buckingham Palace and entered the Queen's bedroom, dripping blood and carrying a shard of broken glass. The Queen shouted "What are you doing here?!" and ran out. No charges were brought since breaking into Buckingham Palace wasn't classed as a criminal offence at the time.
o5nA TIL that the NORAD Tracks Santa tradition started when a misprinted Sears ad for calling Santa directed to NORAD instead.
W7wKo TIL in 1995, a US chat show had guests meeting their secret admirer. But didn't tell them their admirer was the of the same gender. One guest was so upset to learn another man had a crush on him, he murdered him 3 day later.
YpMmB TIL heels were first made by the Persian cavalry to keep stability while shooting arrows. It later became popular in Europe as masculine symbol until 1630 when women followed the fashion. First a military asset then a masculine symbol and now feminine.