In honor of St. Patrick’s Day on Monday, a few tidbits from The Fact File:

• St Patrick was born in a town in Roman Britain in 385 A.D., to Roman parents. He was English, and his birth name was Maewyn Succat.

•  The first St Patrick’s Day celebration in the U.S. was held in Boston in 1737.

• The first New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1762. The parade route is 1.5 miles long, and takes over 5 hours. The world’s shortest parade of the day, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, runs for 98 feet.

• The Chicago River (total length of 156 miles) has been dyed green on St. Patrick’s Day since 1962. Using 100 pounds of dye the first year, the river stayed green for almost a week. Now they use only 40 pounds, which lasts about 5 hours.

Erin go bragh (Ireland forever)!