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TIL the Talmud instructs that no boy should have foreskin removed if two brothers had died from complications of the procedure. By the 12th century, this was said to be based on maternal descent. Rabbinic texts likely offer the earliest recorded evidence for hemophilia, the genetic blood disorder.

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6o0Q TIL Chemotherapy drugs to fight cancer were discovered in WW1 where the effects of mustard gas on surviors reduced the amount of rapidly dividing cells like white blood cells. First drug developed based on this research was called Mustine.
vPDV4 Today I Learned: One of the first covert listening devices was given to a sitting US President as a gift.
OGeba TIL St. Patrick's day originally was celebrated with blue. George III needed to create a new order of chivalry for the kingdom of Ireland and needed a color for it. The Order of the Garter for the previous Kingdom of England already used a dark blue, so a lighter blue was used. It changed in ~1800.
oBxpW TIL Elijah Wood spoke of an organized child sex abuse in Hollywood (before the Weinstein and #MeToo incidents)
7vp7 TIL that paintings done by elephants aren’t learned talents, but rather their trainers guiding their trunk with the brush using a sharp nail behind the ear.