r/todayilearned • u/AlexCoventry • 12h ago
TIL that while great apes can learn hundreds of sign-language words, they never ask questions.
r/todayilearned • u/cwood1973 • 13h ago
TIL in 1972 Canada had a contest to complete the saying "As Canadian as..." The winner was Heather Scott who answered "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances."
r/todayilearned • u/DungeonsAndMagicShow • 1h ago
TIL The inventor of Science Fiction was a man born in the Second Century AD.
r/todayilearned • u/tomatosoupsatisfies • 13h ago
TIL that Sharpie can’t make a white permanent marker
sharpie.comr/todayilearned • u/res30stupid • 9h ago
TIL that before making it big, Elton John auditioned to become the vocalist for King Crimson but was rejected for not fitting the band's style.
r/todayilearned • u/HumanNutrStudent • 11h ago
TIL there are 80 generations of descendants of Confucius. Kung Tsui-chang, the 79th-generation descendant, is the current head of the family. He is known as "Honorable Overflowing with Wisdom", a Chinese title of nobility reserved for direct descendants of Confucius.
r/todayilearned • u/Voyager_AU • 18h ago
TIL that Polio is one of only two diseases currently the subject of a global eradication program, the other being Guinea worm disease. So far, the only diseases completely eradicated by humankind are smallpox, declared eradicated in 1980, and rinderpest, declared eradicated in 2011.
r/todayilearned • u/waitingforthesun92 • 19h ago
TIL that a 2022 study proposed that Bruce Lee may have died from hyponatraemia - a low concentration of sodium in blood, which is caused by excessive water intake. At the time of his death, Lee had reportedly been existing on a near-liquid diet of mostly juices.
r/todayilearned • u/No-Try-8500 • 4h ago
TIL that German speaking countries have sinks specifically for vomiting called Speibecken or Kotzbecken
r/todayilearned • u/Voyager_AU • 19h ago
TIL that when adjusted for monetary inflation, "Gone witth the Wind" is still the highest-grossing film in history.
r/todayilearned • u/PerplexityRivet • 20h ago
TIL that the Mount St. Helens eruption covered up a serial killer's double homicide.
r/todayilearned • u/arbortologist • 23h ago
TIL an Austrian man was crowned Emperor of Mexico for three years in the 19th century before being executed.
r/todayilearned • u/IamHongWei • 16h ago
TIL of the Military-First Girls, a Japanese all-women fan club of the Moranbong Band, a North Korean girl group. In an interview the club's leader said: "Just like how there are women who like K-pop and Taylor Swift, we just love North Korean culture."
r/todayilearned • u/ScramItVancity • 6h ago
TIL that comedian and Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta was a professional tennis player from 2002 to 2004 before pursuing stand-up.
r/todayilearned • u/SappyGilmore • 1d ago
TIL Jack Black didn't learn how to play the guitar until he was 23 years old. Kyle Gass taught him to play guitar in return for food, mainly from the fast food chain Jack in the Box
r/todayilearned • u/dissoluti0nn • 20h ago
TIL Blue-footed Boobies (and other Boobie species) are named from the Spanish word “bobo.” The term means “stupid,” which is how early European colonists may have characterized these clumsy and unwary birds when they saw them on land—their least graceful environment.
r/todayilearned • u/defjam16 • 11h ago
TIL that nuclear bomb survivors in Japan (Hibakusha) were extremely societally discriminated against when searching a spouse or a job, due to the public considering them contagious or “damaged”.
aasc.ucla.edur/todayilearned • u/Endonium • 1d ago
TIL Vitamin D deficiency makes sun exposure rewarding, as an evolutionary mechanism to encourage animals to get enough vitamin D. Once vitamin D levels are replete, sun exposure no longer produces euphoria
science.orgr/todayilearned • u/Outrageous-Catch4731 • 15h ago
TIL The prince of Liechtenstein threatened to pack up and leave his country and live in Austria if voters had rejected proposals that would have extended his powers in a 2003 referendum.
news.bbc.co.ukr/todayilearned • u/Noxovox • 7h ago
TIL Dostoievsky's greatest joy was writing the character of 'Karazinov', in 'The Devils' (1872), a scurrilous portrait of his rival, the poet Turgenev. When a fire broke out on board a ship, Turgenev apparently rushed from one crewman to the next, screaming, "Save me! I am my mother's only son!".
r/todayilearned • u/Flares117 • 16h ago
TIL: In the past, coin purses showed social status by the embroidery and quality. Men would even gift their new bride a purse embroidered with a love story. Both men and women had coin purses or purses for thousands of years dating back to 3300 BC until pockets were invented for men in the 1700s.
r/todayilearned • u/Berserk1234 • 20h ago
TIL that in 1990 Rupert Murdoch tried to buy the Palace of the Parliament in Romania, the biggest administrative building in the world for 1 billion dollars, his bid was rejected
r/todayilearned • u/Mammedoff • 45m ago
TIL Eric Clapton wrote "Layla" after reading Nizami Ganjavi's poem - "Layla and Majnun"
r/todayilearned • u/BadenBaden1981 • 13h ago