› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Ireland is the only country in Europe to have a lower population now than 100 years ago. This can mostly be attributed to the Great Irish Famine which caused over 4 million to die or emigrate on coffin ships. The British sending food to Britain greatly contributed to mass starvation.

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gZ4b TIL J.R.R. Tolkien asked his wife to marry him by mail after no communication with her for 5 years, meanwhile she was already engaged to another man.
weoM TIL John Lennon once saw a UFO. Lennon called his photographer who told him to call the police, but Lennon laughed and said, “I’m not going to call up the newspaper and say, ‘This is John Lennon and I saw a flying saucer last night’.”
6ryY TIL in 1996, as a April Fool’s Day prank, the Taco Bell Corporation took out a full-page ad that appeared in six major newspapers saying that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. The National Historic Park in Philadelphia received hundreds of outraged calls.
paN4 TIL it’s a mystery why so many bird and dinosaur fossils exhibit a ‘death pose’ - the characteristic posture consisting of head thrown back, tail extended, and mouth wide open
Nykb TIL that by draining the blood from gunshot victims, and replacing it with a cold saline solution, Doctors are hoping to place patients in a suspended animation. This new experimental procedure will buy the patient time