Potatoes are not native to Ireland

It’s a common misconception that potatoes hail from Ireland, or elsewhere in Europe, but they were actually first cultivated in the New World — specifically, South America’s Andean region. Archaeologists uncovered fossilized sweet potatoes in Peru’s Chilca Canyon dating back to around 8080 BCE, making them the oldest known remains of domesticated tubers. There’s also evidenceof potatoes having grown along Peru’s coast some 4,000 years ago, as well as along the shores of Lake Titicaca (an area shared by modern-day Bolivia and Peru) roughly 2,500 years ago.

The earliest spuds were cultivated by ancient civilizations that inhabited the Andes, including the Aymara, who settled on the Titicaca Plateau no later than 1500 BCE. The Aymara managed to grow more than 200 potato varieties, despite extreme heights and adverse climatic conditions. Potatoes were also a popular crop among the Inca, who used them for pottery, medicine, and even to predict the weather.

Potatoes were only introduced to Europe in the 16th century, when they were brought back to the continent by Spanish conquistadors. According to the Irish Potato Federation, the spuds arrived in Ireland between 1586 and 1600 CE, though there’s no written evidence of their early cultivation there. Potatoes, which could be grown in cheap soil, quickly became a staple crop among poorer Irish communities. When the Irish Potato Famine struck in 1845, an estimated 1.5 million Irish fled to the United States to avoid hunger. This largely accounts for why many of us draw a connection between Ireland and potatoes, despite the spud’s South American origins.

Mr.Potato Head was the first toy sold on TV

On April 30, 1952, a television ad aired to promote the new Mr. Potato Head toy. This marked the first televised toy advertisement and also the first ad to speak directly to children rather than their parents. Mr. Potato Head was originally much different than its modern incarnation. The packagingcontained 30 plastic accessories (facial features, hands, feet, etc.) that could be affixed to real potatoes instead of a plastic body.

That inaugural advertisement featured a cartoon mascot informing kids about all the fun they could have playing with Mr. Potato Head, and the campaign proved so successful that more than a million kits sold in the first year alone. But in the 1960s, new government safety regulations prohibited the sale of sharp accessories that could, for instance, be stuck into spuds as toys. In response, the Hasbro toy company pivoted and began selling a plastic potato body with premade holes and more kid-friendly accessories.