He passed away traditionally on December 6th, 343 in Myra, Diocese of Asia, Roman Empire (Modern Turkey). He would have been aged seventy-three. 5/5

Saint Nicholas has a major shrine Basilica di San Nicola, Bari, Italy. He was vested as a bishop. In Eastern Christianity, wearing an omophorion and holding a Gospel Book. 4/5

His feast day is December 5th/6th in the Gregorian calendar and December 19th in the Julian calendar. 3/5

He is the patron saint of children coopers travelers sailors fishermen merchants toymakers among many others. He is in venerated in all Christian denominations which venerate saints. 2/5

He was born during the Hundred Years’ War and is the only English monarch to also have been crowned King of France (disputed). His disputed reign was 1422-1453. His coronation as King of France took place on December 16th, 1431. 3/3

Henry succeeded his father as King of England when he was less than a year old. His first reign was 1422-1461 and the second was 1470-1471. 2/3

no seriously we are a sewer utility, it's all combined when it gets to us.

once you made it to adulthood, you were more likely than not to survive to 60 or even 70 years old, unless you could and did bear children, and the more you did that the greater the risk it'd kill you

note that "more likely than not" doesn't mean "the likelihood is high", it just means the chances

increase in life expectancy means!

it's so dramatic because the overwhelming majority of children survive childhood now! and people are far less likely to die giving birth!

back in the days before modern medicine and baby formula, the average child had a fifty-fifty chance of reaching adulthood

dealt with by either boiling it or mixing it with alcohol; the reason most accounts of beverages are beer, wine, vinegar, tisanes, tea, etc., are because those were the ones people decided were worth recording, but, as Max Miller covered in a video, people did drink plenty of plain water

of things like cholera and dysentery were way *way* higher in certain parts of the world because of extremely poor understanding of sanitation

or, for example, the practice of drinking wine out of lead cups

and, no, the drinking water was not typically riddled with impurities that could only be…