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TIL That Ancient Christians made Jesus’s birth date the same day as the roman holiday Saturnalia in an attempt to convert Pagans to Christianity. Nowhere in the Bible did it actually state that this was when Jesus was born.

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wol16 TIL the USS Scorpion was lost at sea in May 1968 with 99 men lost. The wreckage was found almost two miles deep, making it impossible to determine the cause of accident. Underwater acoustics out of the Canary Islands heard the exact time of the implosion but were unaware it was the sub sinking.
E110w TIL of the "Kiss of Deaf," aka "Reiter's Ear-Kissing Syndrome (REKS)." It's a hearing loss syndrome caused by a direct kiss in the ear, and although it's temporary, it often causes permanent partial hearing loss.
6905l TIL Pope Leo X had a beloved pet elephant who died at the age of 6, with the Pope by his side, when they tried to treat his constipation with gold-enriched laxatives. The pope wrote a poem for him as an epitaph and Raphael made his portrait
jNorQ TIL that in the mass escape of POWs from the Stalag Luft III camp which inspired the film The Great Escape, only 3 prisoners made it to safety. The two Norwegians and a Dutch man made it to Sweden and England respectively. The remaining prisoners were swiftly recaptured.
E1JrV TIL that Ira Einhorn, a Harvard University teaching fellow and environmental activist who claimed to have been instrumental in organizing the first Earth Day, murdered his ex-girlfriend in 1977 before fleeing to France. By abusing various legal loopholes, he managed to escape prison until 2002.