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TIL The Vatican recognizes the 1982 apparition of the Virgin Mary in Rwanda, where she appeared to three young girls and foretold of the blood and horror of the 1994 genocide. The girls said they spent countless hours in conversations with Mary, who called herself Nyina wa Jambo, Mother of the Word

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loGx1 TIL that in the late 1860's, the Phylloxera (insect) destroyed almost all of the French vineyards and that Americans saved it by exporting some vines to be grafted, resulting in a pest-resistant vine, saving the French from a catastrophic loss.
jNEGN TIL that the New Orleans "Jazz Funeral" is a burial ceremony and celebration of life unique to New Orleans. After the body is buried the band begins to play up-tempo, joyful jazz numbers, crowds of "second liners" join in and begin dancing, transforming the funeral into a street festival.
7rQjL TIL dreams are thought to strip memories of emotion. According to the theory, this function fails in sufferers of PTSD. Recurring nightmares might therefore be a repeated attempt at performing this function.
jNoR TIL that TRON (1982) was disqualified from receiving an Academy Award nomination for special effects, because the Academy felt using computers was “cheating”.
kOrdd TIL that the appendix is not useless. Based on known facts, researchers asserted in 2007 that it stores beneficial bacteria to repopulate the body should it be purged of that bacteria by illness. An experiment then showed the disease C-diff to reoccur 4x more often in those without an appendix.