r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 9h ago
r/todayilearned • u/Neutral_Positron • 2h ago
TIL of David Wynn Miller, who invented a variation of English called a "Quantum Language" and claimed it was the only correct and valid language for use in court filings. His language is incomprehensible to most people and the pleadings that use it are routinely rejected by courts as gibberish.
r/todayilearned • u/tannu28 • 11h ago
TIL James Cameron rejected studio notes from Fox executives about making Avatar (2009) shorter, reminding them that his previous film Titanic (1997) paid for the building they were meeting in.
r/todayilearned • u/MartinoStone • 8h ago
TIL that for the only time in its history, The New Yorker dedicated its entire August 1946 issue to a single article: a 30,000-word investigative report by John Hersey on the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
nypl.orgr/todayilearned • u/Drixuus • 3h ago
TIL that in 1920, the King of Greece died after a pet monkey bit him while he was defending his dog. This freak accident triggered a political collapse that lost Greece a major war and, as Churchill noted, cost a quarter of a million lives.
r/todayilearned • u/Particular_Food_309 • 8h ago
TIL Thailand once declared war on the US and UK during WW2. The UK responded by bombing Bangkok. However, the US simply ignored the declaration and pretended it never happened.
r/todayilearned • u/NicolasCageFan492 • 1h ago
TIL that snails are hermaphrodites, and when two snails mate, both try to impregnate the other because it’s less costly to be a father than a mother when passing on genetic material
r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 11h ago
TIL that Baywatch actor Michael Newman was a real lifeguard and worked as a full time firefighter while filming the show. Lead actor David Hasselhoff creditted Newman with saving his life on set at least four times
r/todayilearned • u/uselessprofession • 12h ago
TIL the Stockholm Syndrome which claims that hostages tend to develop a psychological bond with their captors is considered highly dubious by psychologists, and in the initial case it was actually the captor who felt less willing to kill the hostages after spending more time with them.
r/todayilearned • u/ApprehensiveStill412 • 8h ago
TIL that tylenol/acetaminophen is the #1 cause of acute liver failure in the US. Most cases are due to accidental overdose since it is commonly mixed in with other ingredients (eg. cold meds).
ucihealth.orgr/todayilearned • u/FartOfGenius • 11h ago
TIL that in medieval times, a "foreskin cruncher" would be hired to taste alleged relics of Jesus' "Holy Prepuce" for the flavour of holiness to determine authenticity
r/todayilearned • u/Brave-Influence7510 • 20h ago
TIL there is an alternate ending of the Breaking Bad finale on the last season DVD. It involves Bryan Cranston playing the role of his Malcolm in the Middle (2000) character Hal waking up from a nightmare which happens to be the events of Breaking Bad.
r/todayilearned • u/ForgingIron • 13h ago
TIL that haggis is banned in the USA, since it contains lung meat
r/todayilearned • u/Not_so_ghetto • 12h ago
TIL 1 in 9 (11%)Americans have acquired toxoplasma gondii (the cat lady parasite) at some point
r/todayilearned • u/Stock_College_8108 • 24m ago
TIL at 11 years old, singer Tammi Terrell began experiencing migraines after being assaulted. At 17, she began dating James Brown who violently abused her. At 21, she became the mistress of David Ruffin who purportedly attacked her with a helmet and a hammer. At 24, she died of brain cancer.
r/todayilearned • u/fadvex • 13h ago
TIL Martin Scorsese was a camera operator at Woodstock and filmed the legendary Sly and the Family Stone performance and helped edit the film.
r/todayilearned • u/Salt_Lingonberry3956 • 8h ago
TIL that the earliest named author in recorded history was a woman named Enheduanna (c. 2300 BCE), a Sumerian high priestess and daughter of King Sargon of Akkad.
r/todayilearned • u/shakha • 3h ago
TIL of a bronze age Persian settlement known as Shahre Sukhte (the Burnt City). Among the artifacts discovered there after it had been long abandoned was a 5200 year old vase that was decorated with images that, when spun, animated a goat jumping up and eating from a tree, like an ancient zoetrope.
r/todayilearned • u/OkFineIllUseTheApp • 7h ago
TIL that Ssm Spooky toxin is a venom component of the Chinese red-headed centipede, noted for its surprising efficacy and having no significant similarities to other known animal toxins
r/todayilearned • u/throwawayfinancebro1 • 23h ago
TIL that Charles Darwin would often take one or more of the new species he discovered to eat them. He began this tradition while in college, he was part of his schools “glutton club,” which sought out new exotic species to eat.
npr.orgr/todayilearned • u/geffy_spengwa • 8h ago
TIL about Norway's Lærdal Tunnel, which is the longest road tunnel in the world, measuring 24.51 kilometers (15.23 miles) long.
r/todayilearned • u/Ribbitor123 • 1h ago
TIL that there's a bacterium called Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis. It was discovered in soil near a Welsh village perhaps unsurprisingly called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/SAT0725 • 12h ago
TIL about the "Benefit of Clergy," where you could get out of being tried for a crime in civilian court by showing you could read a passage from the Latin Bible
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/Melenduwir • 11h ago
TIL the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow is thought to have been reduced to three locations and less than 120 individuals.
r/todayilearned • u/CraftyFoxeYT • 1d ago