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TiL it was Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" that popularized the expression "Merry Christmas".

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oRPdW TIL an African grey parrot named "Nigel" who spoke with a British accent, went missing from his California home. He was returned 4 years later speaking Spanish
m1K1y TIL that Helen Viola Jackson was the last surviving widow of a Union soldier and the last surviving widow of a Civil War veteran overall; she died on December 16, 2020, at the age of 101.
78ErL TIL Dick Seaman became a Nazi sporting legend after he was personally chosen to race for Mercedes-Benz by Adolf Hitler, and later died in a racing accident in 1939
VMjOB TIL that after the fall of the communist regime in Hungary the Hungarians didn't destroy their statues, they moved them to a statue park as to never forget the tyranny they experienced.
LkoXZ TIL Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was first published as a giveaway for the department store Montgomery Ward in 1939. The story was initially rejected because, in 1930s pop culture, a bright red nose was closely associated with chronic alcoholism and drunkards.