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TIL in the 1630s, Cardinal Richelieu grew weary of watching his dinner guests pick their teeth with their table knives, grinded down the end, and invented the modern dinner knife

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MeBva TIL Paris's first Tex-Mex restaurant opened in 1983. Business was slow, but the 1986 film Betty Blue, had characters drinking tequila shots and eating chili con carne, made the food popular. Benayoun said, "after the movie came out, everybody in Paris wanted a shot of tequila and a bowl of chili."
9wKJ7 TIL the Krispy Kreme Donut Machine can make 3000 donuts each hour. It can also make different types of donuts and in different shapes.
Y7plP TIL that during World War II, USAAF Col. Paul Tibbetts was frustrated with his pilots complaining about how hard it was to fly the new B-29 bomber. He arranged for two women WASP pilots to be trained on the big plane and had them fly it around the country just to shame the men. It worked.
ADK4g TIL Cats do not need to blink on a regular basis to keep their eyes lubricated. Unblinking eyes are probably an advantage when hunting. Cats will, however, squint their eyes, usually as a form of communication expressing affection and ease around another cat or human.
E1oxo TIL that in 1825 Haiti agreed to pay $21bn to France to preserve its independence and be able to participate in the global economy. As a poor country who just uprised and freed itself from slavery, the Haitian government even had to ask citizens for donations. They ended up paying it off in 1947.