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50 Unusual And Cool Facts About The World People Just Learned This June
Life’s a lot better when you stay curious and open-minded about the world. That’s easier said than done, however. Adult responsibilities, work, studies, chores, and stress all get in the way. But if you have a few minutes to spare, some corners of the internet reward you with newfound knowledge.
To share some of that knowledge with you, we’re showcasing some of the most intriguing and unusual facts shared by members of the ‘Today I Learned’ (TIL) online community this June. Scroll down to expand your mind. Hopefully, these facts will pique your curiosity and inspire you to spend more time reading about topics you never knew you were interested in.
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#1
TIL that when his son Xinzhen was abducted by a child trafficker in 1997, Guo Gangtang spent 24 years, his life savings and 10 motorbikes on a search for him across China. They were finally reunited in 2021 and his efforts helped the Chinese authorities find over 100 more abducted children.
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#2
TIL that Ken Allen, an orangutan at the San Diego Zoo, became famous for his many successful escapes. During his escapes, he would peacefully stroll around the zoo looking at other animals. He never acted aggressively toward patrons, but would throw rocks at Otis, another orangutan he “despised”
#3
TIL in 1976, Jaime Sin was appointed a Cardinal in the Catholic Church, being formally known as "Cardinal Sin". He would greet guests to his home with "Welcome to the house of Sin".
According to Leon F. Seltzer, PhD, curiosity seems to improve your cognitive functioning. In other words, it helps your mind work more logically and efficiently.
Seltzer explains that being curious can make us more intelligent, “enhancing our critical thinking skills and making us more likely to question assumptions, challenge beliefs, assess evidence, and so make better, more informed decisions.” On top of that, curiosity can also boost your imagination and creativity.
Furthermore, curiosity can also increase your:
- Confidence
- Self-esteem
- Sense of pride
- Purpose
- Life direction
#4
TIL that in 1999, 11-year old Mitchell Schop wrote to his favorite band, Cake, and asked if they would play his Bar Mitzvah. After Schop sang his favorite song of theirs to the band over the phone, Cake agreed and made Schop's party the first stop on their 1999 world tour
#5
TIL that Australian convicted criminal, gang member and author Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read refused a liver transplant, saying, "I'm 55-years-old; I'm not going to put my name down against some 10-year-old kid."
#6
TIL the old Danish criteria for common law marriage was that" If anyone has a mistress in his home for three winters and obviously sleeps with her, and she commands lock and key and obviously eats and drinks with him, then she shall be his wife and rightful lady of the house."
In a recent article, UCLA points out that curiosity tends to wane as you get older. That being said, one type of curiosity—state curiosity—can increase into old age.
“State curiosity is what psychologists call the kind of momentary feeling of curiosity people experience when they are asked about specific topics. Trait curiosity [your general level of curiosity], on the other hand, is a personality trait. Some people, for example, might not be very inquisitive by nature, being content to accept things more or less at face value (trait curiosity), but have a passionate thirst for knowledge in specific topics or hobbies (state curiosity). All people possess varying degrees of both trait and state curiosity.”
Individuals who maintain their curiosity as they age can offset or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The reverse is also true. People who aren’t curious or interested in the world can be at greater risk of dementia.
#7
TIL that although intensely private, Joe DiMaggio allowed a children's hospital to use his name and image on condition that they never turn away a child because of inability to pay. The deal was struck with a promise and a handshake.
#8
TIL after a woman put $40 into a lottery vending machine with the intention of buying multiple cheaper tickets, "some rude person" bumped into her & caused her to accidentally select a $30 ticket. She was annoyed until she started scratching that ticket & realized she'd won the $10 million jackpot.
#9
TIL that, in the first printed attestation of orangutans in western sources, Malays claimed the ape could talk but preferred not to “lest he be compelled to labour”
The ‘Today I Learned’ group, boasting 41 million members, is one of the largest communities on Reddit. Originally, it was created in late 2008. The premise is simple: you share interesting facts about something that you only recently found out.
These aren’t random opinions or biased posts either. If you want to share something you learned on the TIL sub, you must back up the facts you post with reliable, objective sources. The high bar set by the moderators is one of the reasons why the subreddit continues to be so incredibly successful.
#10
TIL that a sunfish in a Japanese aquarium became so lonely after the aquarium closed to visitors for renovations that it stopped eating. Only after staff placed photos of people’s faces near its tank did the sunfish perk up and start eating again
#11
TIL 15-year-old Shyam Lal in India decided to take his spade and dig a pond to quench the thirst of people and cattles. Fellow villagers laughed at him. Lal identified a spot in the forest in and kept digging — for 27 years. The result was a one-acre 15-feet deep pond.
#12
TIL Humans are not the only species that has discovered agriculture. Ants have been practicing agriculture for at least 50 million years. The domestication of plant, fungus, and animal species by ants is well documented.
A penny for your thoughts, Pandas. Which of the TIL facts that we’ve featured here today genuinely surprised you? Which ones got you thinking about the topic so much that you actually want to do more research?
On the other hand, which of these facts did you actually know before? What do you do to stay curious about the world, no matter what life throws at you? We’re always happy to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments below.
#13
TIL that Jeremy Clarkson’s mother, Shirley Clarkson, designed and created the very first Paddington Bear toy in the early 1970s, prototypes that she made for Jeremy and his sister later became a licensed product that funded his education and helped launch his TV career
#14
TIL there’s a philosophy that believes humans shouldn’t procreate and should eventually go extinct and it’s called antinatalism
#15
TIL in the 1980s, a woman bought a ring at a car boot sale for £10 & proceeded to wear it regularly under the assumption it was a piece of costume jewelry. However when she had it appraised decades later, it was identified as a real 26-carat diamond ring from the 1800s, which she then sold for £656K
#16
TIL Ireland's population peaked in the census of 1841 with over 8 million people. It never recovered from the long lasting effects of the potato famine. Was at 4 million for half a century. Today, it's at 7.2 million, having not fully recovered almost 2 centuries post famine
#17
TIL that all diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob and fatal insomnia, have a perfect 100% mortality rate. There are no cases of survival and these diseases are invariably fatal.
#18
TIL People with social anxiety disorder have a different gut microbiome - transplanting their microbiome to mice causes the mice to suffer from increased social fear
David Paterson 5 months ago
Ditto obesity. Completely different gut microbiome. Which opens up the possibility that obesity is actually an infectious disease.
#19
TIL at the luxurious French brothel One-Two-Two there were themed rooms. One of the rooms, the Orient Express was a replica of a train car. It had sound effects and shook and bounced like a real train in motion. You could even have an intrusive conductor barge into the room and join in.
#20
TIL that in 2003 Hideo Kojima designed a Game Boy Advance game with a light sensor built into the cartridge. The player's in-game weapon is charged by taking the game outside and playing it in natural sunlight, and game mechanics change when it's dark out in your area
#22
TIL blood lost during a cycle isn’t blood that’s been “stored” over the month long cycle, it’s blood coming from blood vessels in the uterus. As the uterine lining pulls away, ‘tiny’ ruptures/tears are caused in the blood vessels, and heavy cycles are caused by enlarged vessels & hormone imbalance
#23
TIL of the 85 known d***s that interact with grapefruit, 43 can have serious side-effects including sudden death, acute kidney failure, respiratory failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and bone marrow suppression in people with weakened immune systems.
Son of Philosoraptor 5 months ago
It's because it changes the liver's process of metabolization. Slows it down.
#24
TIL the first words ever spoken in a feature film were, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” — delivered by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927).
#25
TIL that in 1906, a serial k**ler in Morocco was sentenced to death by immurement (being walled in).
#26
TIL in 2014 Ben Affleck was banned for life from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas after he was caught on camera counting cards at a high rollers table. He was told by security that he was "too good" and had been deemed an advantage blackjack player.
#27
TIL 2055 brown recluse spiders were removed from a house in Kansas. The spiders had four human roommates who had lived in their house for many years and were never bitten, despite frequent encounters with the spiders.
#28
TIL that after featuring as the "childlike empress" in The Neverending Story, the 11 year old actress began receiving marriage proposals from adult men resulting in her hiatus from acting until she was an adult.
#29
TIL that in 2020, an Oregon man driving a stolen car crashed into a woman driving another stolen car
#30
TIL of the 1997Jarrell, Texas "Dead Man Walking" tornado, a slow-moving F5 twister that sat over a subdivision for three full minutes, subjecting it to 260+ mph winds. It erased everything, killed 27 people, plus hundreds of cattle, and blended their remains together unrecognizably.
Wild Cream 5 months ago
I just watched a video on this. The aftermath is terrifying….there’s NOTHING left. People reported having vehicles in their driveway before the tornado, and never finding even a single piece of that vehicle ever again. There was also a field of cows that was massacred - so many humans were ripped to shreds too that authorities were having a hard time separating cow and human remains :( they said that once the tornado passed, it was pure silence. No crying, no creaking of collapsing buildings, no voices calling for help. Just silence.
#31
TIL Marottichal a village in India was rife with alcoholism and illicit gambling, but everything changed after one man taught the town to play chess. Miraculously, the game’s popularity flourished while drinking and gambling declined.
#32
TIL a human brain uses 12 watts to think while, if it could, an AI system doing the same processing could use 2.7 billion watts
#33
TIL that there is a strategy for winning competitive debates called “spreading”, which involves making as many arguments as possible within a short time so that the opponent is unable to respond to them all. The technique has been described as unfair and as “sounding like a cattle auctioneer”.
#34
TIL at Animal Kingdom in Disney World balloons aren’t allowed so they created a “balloon daycare” where your balloon is stored and they’ll give you a report card about its day and its activities.
T'Mar of Vulcan 5 months ago
Balloons should be banned due to their deleterious effect on wildlife.
#35
TIL that French used to have and provide mobile military brothels to their soldiers between WW1 and as late as 2003.
Chewie Baron 5 months ago
When Germany won the voting process to host the 2006 World Cup, a day later it was announced that plans had been submitted to the Berlin City Council to build the world’s biggest brothel!
#36
TIL The original Jungle Gym was originally designed to help children comprehend the 4th dimension as a tesseract by an eccentric British mathematician.
#37
TIL Spanish entomologist Luis Méndez de Torres was the first to realize, in the late 1500s, the "king" bee was, in fact, a female. But he didn't call it "queen," but "mistress of the swarm."
#38
TIL. Astronauts left mirrors on the moon for scientists on earth to bounce lasers off.
T'Mar of Vulcan 5 months ago
There's an episode of The Big Bang Theory where they do this. Penny's ex is there and goes, "How do you know it won't blow up?" "The laser?" "The moon."
#39
TIL Alleged spy Mata Hari was a famous exotic dancer who never appeared fully nude onstage. Although she would strip off most of her clothes, her jeweled breastplate would remain. This was because she was self-conscious about her small breasts.
#40
TIL Studies show patients suffering from kidney stones often passed the stones while riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
#41
TIL Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered in 1995 by two people: astronomer Alan Hale and amateur stargazer Thomas Bopp. Both immediately alerted the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams to report their discovery. Hale sent an e-mail, while Bopp sent a Western Union telegram.
#42
TIL Galapagos tortoises have been known to k**l the finches that groom them for parasites. The tortoise will suddenly retract its limbs to lay flat, and purposely fall on the bird, k**ling it and consuming it for protein.
#43
TIL Margot Kidder (Lois Lane from the original Superman) had a manic breakdown after the laptop she was using to write her autobiography crashed. She disappeared for four days
#44
TIL After British Airways Flight 9 flew through volcanic ash, the Captain announced "We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
#45
TIL that Tom Selleck was almost cast as Indiana Jones instead of Harrison Ford. He only lost out because CBS wouldn't let him out of his contract for Magnum PI.
Lady Eowyn 5 months ago
And everyone is grateful. There likely wouldn't have been the successful franchise without Harrison Ford.
#46
TIL that the demand for Ozempic is so great that it has boosted Denmark's entire economy
#47
TIL that Hetty Green, also called the “witch of Wall Street,” was incredibly rich, yet she continued to live in inexpensive lodgings, avoiding any display of wealth and seeking medical treatment for herself at charity clinics. On her death in 1916, Green left an estate of more than $100,000,000.
Panda McPandaface 5 months ago
I think that sort of person is more commonly known as a 'miser'.
#48
TIL that Judaism has a roughly 2500-year-old prayer for using the bathroom in which you thank God for giving you the right number of orifices and not sealing them or making new ones
David 5 months ago (edited)
Not exactly what the prayer is, the person is giving wrong details about what it says, they probably heard about it, but never read it. It is called "Asher Yahtzar" and here is the translation; "Blessed are You, The Lord, our God, King of the universe, who formed mankind with wisdom and created within all manners of opening and and all matters of hollows. It is obvious and known before your Throne of Glory, that if one of them were ruptured, or if one of them were blocked, it would be impossible to exist and stand before you (even for one hour). Blessed are You, The Lord, who heals all flesh and acts wondrously". The Blessing is also said every morning as part of the introduction to the morning prayer service. It's purpose is to thank God for our health every day and to appreciate our health. And to remind us, to thank God for our health before we have medical issue, to thank when we are healthy and our bodies as normal
#49
TIL that ancient Greek and Roman historians wrote about a species of headless humans with faces in their chest who supposedly populated Libya and Aethopia
#50
TIL Charles Lightoller was sucked back into Titantic, “he was pinned against the grating for some time by the pressure of the incoming water, until a blast of hot air from the depths of the ship erupted out of the ventilator and blew him to the surface.” He later fought in WW1 and WW2.
#51
TIL The US Air Force dropped several BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" bombs leftover from Vietnam during the Gulf War. A British SAS unit that witnessed the explosion reported "Sir, the blokes have just nuked Kuwait"
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 5 months ago
Makes a nice change they weren't dropping things on British troops. Highest individual loss of life in BOTH Gulf wars was to US "friendly fire". Biggest military budget in the world, but they fail to find competent pilots.
#52
TIL that when the Britannic, which was the sister ship of the Titanic, struck a German mine and began to sink, two lifeboats full of passengers left the ship without permission and were pulled into the vessel’s rotating propellers.
#53
TIL that the 23 year reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius is considered the most peaceful in the history of the Roman Empire. There’s no record of Antoninus leading any military action, and it’s likely he likely never saw or commanded a Roman army or came within 500 miles of a legion during his reign.
#54
TIL about Beatriz Flamini who spent 500 days alone in a cave without clocks, sunlight, or human contact as part of a scientific experiment on extreme isolation.
David Paterson 5 months ago
He managed to survive. He had multiple nervous breakdowns while there.
#55
TIL the Guinness World Record for most birthdays in one day belongs to a Pakistani family, with every member having been born on August 1st; including the mother and father.
Michael Largey 5 months ago (edited)
They must have been feeling very randy every November 1st (nine months before). Staying up past midnight on Halloween will do that to some people.
#56
TIL of Lyodura, a brain surgery material that, unknown to the buyers, was tissue harvested by the seller from black market human corpses and carried fatal incurable prion disease. Over 150 people were infected before its ban in 1996
#57
TIL James Rothschild is a double heir, to both Rothschild and Guinness fortunes
#58
TIL the deer around Nara, the ancient early capital of Japan, are sacred in Shintoism for being messengers of the gods. They have been tame for centuries from humans not hunting them. They are popular with guests who buy “deer cookies” to feed them.
Lost Panda 5 months ago
Due to the influx of tourism, they have recently started head butting people who don't have snacks for them XD
#59
TIL Pausanias, the Spartan general who defeated the Persians at Plataea, was later accused of colluding with the Persians. He sought sanctuary at a temple, where his mother visited him only to lay a brick at the entrance, implying that they should seal it and starve him to death, which they did
#60
TIL in 2024 the Canadian town of Drumheller attempted to set the world record for the largest gathering of people in inflatable dinosaur costumes. Their attempted was disqualified because more people than expected showed up and they lost count at 3000.
#61
TIL that aftershocks from the 1868 Hawaiʻi earthquake have continued until the present day -- after more than 150 years!
#62
TIL that George Washington died with a net worth of $594.2 million in today’s money, and drew a presidential salary of $25,000 (~$900k today) which was around 2% of the government’s budget at the time.
Son of Philosoraptor 5 months ago
He has this advantage... Cheap labor... No.. free labor! Not quite right.. slaves! That's it! He held chattel slaves to work like livestock. Except... Spoiler!... They were actually PEOPLE. Make it easy to be rich though.
#63
TIL that Bruce Lee was only 32 years old when he died from a brain edema after not being able to be woken up from a nap.
Son of Philosoraptor 5 months ago
Current theory is heat stroke, brain swelled up. Tragedy. I recommend Bruce Lee Changed the World as a fascinating documentary
#64
TIL Clarence King, discoverer of Mount Whitney and one of the USA's best-known scientists, revealed on his deathbed in 1901 that he had a second life, wife & five kids, living as a Black man named James Todd.
Panda McPandaface 5 months ago
Whoever he was, I supect there had been people aware of Mount Whitney for a year or two before he 'discovered' it.
#66
TIL that when an escalator was first installed in a London department store "customers unnerved by the experience were revived by shopmen dispensing free smelling salts and cognac"
#67
TIL Sony Pictures failed to adapt Michael Lewis' best-selling book Flash Boys into a movie because of their apprehension with having an Asian lead actor, as revealed in private emails leaked in the 2014 Sony Pictures hack.
#68
TIL when actor Patrick Stewart starred with a young rookie called Tom Hardy in Star Trek : Nemesis (2002), he never expected to hear about Tom Hardy again. He now admits he was glad to be proved wrong.
DaisyBee 5 months ago
Just watched Frank Grillo do a podcast where he said similar about Tom Hardy. Apparently he did a film with Tom and Joel Edgerton but was told it was a risk to join the film because no one wanted these guys (Hardy & Edgerton) so it might not do well. Frank signed on anyway and it ended up a huge success, and made him some new lifelong friends anyway
#69
TIL of Hanns Scharff, a WWII German interrogator who never used torture, later moved to the US and designed the mosaic inside Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World.
#70
TIL the highest blood alcohol level reported in a child or adolescent who survived occurred in 1995 when a 15-year-old boy survived a BAC of 0.757%.
#71
TIL Paper is the best option on the first throw in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors when playing against inexperienced players because they tend to lead with Rock. And Scissors is the best option on the first throw against experienced players because they won't lead with Rock as it'd be "too obvious"
#72
TIL about Hysterical Strength - situations, most often of extreme danger, when people who were not known for their strength display physical strength beyond their apparent ability
#73
TIL a study on professional slap fighting analyzed 333 slaps for visible signs of concussion & found that more than 50% of the slap sequences resulted in fighters showing visible signs of concussion, with nearly 80% of the fighters demonstrating at least 1 sign of concussion during their matches.
#74
TIL over 99% of Warren Buffett’s net worth was accumulated after he was 65 years old
Bartlet for world domination 5 months ago (edited)
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. Warren Buffett has been over 65 for almost 30 years.
#75
TIL sun exposure may cause skin cancer, but it also lowers overall mortality rates, including from cancer
David Paterson 5 months ago
A slight misuse of statistics here. Australia has low overall mortality rates, low overall cancer mortality rates, but the highest rate of mortality from skin cancer. It's not a case of cause and effect.
#76
TIL that “blowing from a gun” was a brutal execution method where victims were tied to a cannon’s muzzle and fired upon. Beyond death, it denied burial rites, making it both a physical and spiritual punishment.
#77
TIL of the 4 students who passed their final exams in Einstein's department, he got the lowest mark & was the only one who wasn't offered a job as an assistant teacher at their alma mater. After graduation, he struggled to find teaching work for 2 years. So a friend got him a job as a patent clerk.
#78
TIL that Brazil was the only independent South American country to send combat troops overseas during the Second World War where they inflicted disproportionately high losses on enemy munitions, supplies, and infrastructure.
sofacushionfort 5 months ago
Except for the 201st Squadron of the Mexican Air Force in the Philippines
#79
TIL Australian serial K**ler Ivan Milat lost 25kg (55lbs) from a failed hunger strike in prison when he was denied a PlayStation
#80
TIL that a working nuclear bomb can be designed by three PhD level Physicists in about two years — and that experiment was done in the 60s with them having no specialised knowledge in nuclear physics
David Paterson 5 months ago (edited)
I know more about this. The design was based on declassified files from the Manhattan Project. After the PhD design, these declassified files were rapidly re-classified. So this design process could never be repeated. In addition, their PhD supervisor was a Manhattan Project scientist.
#81
TIL Employees working for movie theaters in the US are exempted from federal law requiring overtime pay. The clause within the 'Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938' establishing "exemption for any employee employed by an establishment which is a motion picture theater" still remains in place today.
#82
TIL the first female US senator was also the last slave-owning US senator
Agfox 5 months ago
Rebecca Latimer Felton from Georgia. Note in particular "She spoke vigorously in favor of lynching African Americans, stating the belief that such acts would protect the sexual purity of European-American women. Most often the African Americans whom she admonished were falsely accused of r**e" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Latimer_Felton
#83
TIL researchers discovered a 430,000-yr-old skull in a Spanish cave that bears evidence of deliberate, lethal blunt force trauma which represents the earliest case of murder in the hominin fossil record. The site where it was found is only accessible through a vertical chimney that extends 40ft down
#84
TIL that to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, candidates were required to have at least six teeth.
#85
TIL a study lured 290 participants under the false premise the study was on attractiveness. They were told their peers would be rating their photo & while “waiting” for the ratings, they played Tetris for 10 minutes. Researchers found that Tetris can put people into a state of “flow” & ease anxiety.
#86
TIL despite receiving criticism from some religious groups, the 1973 film “Jesus Christ Superstar” was beloved by Pope Paul VI. He told director Norman Jewison: “Not only do I appreciate your beautiful rock opera film, I believe it will bring more people to Christianity than anything ever has.”
#87
TIL about the 2017 United Express passenger removal incident, where four paying customers were selected to be involuntarily deplaned. One passenger was injured when he was physically assaulted. It led to USDOT rules that protect passengers from removal or denial of boarding after check-in.
BookFanatic 5 months ago
I know better, but I'm picturing them just opening the door at whatever-thousand feet and pushing people out.
#88
TIL of The British pet massacre, where an estimated 750,000 cats and dogs, a quarter of England's pet population, were euthanized due to a government pamphlet suggesting the public do so, at the beginning of WW2.
#89
TIL that the reason mental health professionals have a legal duty to breach confidentiality and warn potential victims or law enforcement if a patient poses a credible threat- is due to the Tarasoff case.
Elvira394 5 months ago (edited)
Yes but not all states are "Tarrasoff states”. Only somewhere around half. In Iowa technically if your X tells me they have the gún in the car and are going to leave my office to kíll you, I can still lose my license if I call and tell you. But that's only because no case has ever been challenged in our courts. Most of us act like every state is a Tarasoff state, knowing that eventually one of us will be the unlucky guy who gets sued for it. But we also assume the state will likely rule in our favor and thus become a Tarasoff State. And second FYI: They have to name the target. If your ex tells me “I'm going to kíll my ex-wife”, there is no legal obligation to tell anyone. Only if he says “I’m going to kíll Judy Smith”. Although most of us will make an attempt to find out your name or look you up.
#90
TIL Europe's 2003 heat wave killed 70,000+ people. In France, 15,000 died as morgues overflowed — forcing authorities to store bodies in refrigerated trucks
#91
TIL There's a statue in front of the HQ of the CIA with four encrypted messages and its fourth message remains undeciphered. It's, in fact, one of the biggest mysteries in the world of cryptography.
#92
TIL: the Vestal Virgins held unique and extraordinary rights and privileges in Roman society, including some that no other had, male or female. They were sovereign and sacrosanct, answerable only to the emperor.
#93
TIL that Japan's rapid industrialization was driven by massive family-owned conglomerates called "zaibatsu," which were so powerful they were essentially dismantled by the Allies after WWII to democratize the nation.
#94
TIL that atomic clocks are so precise that the most accurate ones won't lose a second for over 30 billion years — longer than the age of the universe.
Jill Jones 5 months ago
My atomic clock is always 3 mins slow within a week of changing batteries or resetting it.
#95
TIL that on Emma Watson's 18th birthday, paparazzi attempted to take pictures under her skirt by laying down on the pavement in front of her house and then published them. If they were taken 24 hours earlier, it would have been illegal.
Caffeinated Ape 5 months ago
How was it not still illegal!? (Oh, good. I checked and it has since been made so. You'd think at bare minimum it would have qualified as harassment even before the law change.)
#96
TIL in 2016 a man inadvertently recreated a "Seinfeld" plot: Attempting to return 10,000 aluminum cans in Michigan (10c return rate per) from Kentucky (5c return rate). He was later arrested for one count of beverage return of nonrefundable bottles.
#97
TIL that cracking your knuckles doesn’t cause arthritis. The sound comes from harmless gas bubbles popping.
#98
TIL Frustrated with his generals inability to capture the town of Mirandola, Pope Julius II personally went there in January 1511, scolded his generals and personally assumed command of the siege. Two weeks later he took part in storming the walls, making sure to restrain his soldiers from looting
#99
TIL that Roman ladies would pay to have the sweat and muck of Gladiator's bodies scraped off, so that they could use it as a moisturiser.
#100
TIL there is an 85 mile stretch of land on the Mississippi River called "Cancer Alley" due to the concentration of petrochemical and refinery plants there.
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
Not even the least bit surprised. The one thing you learn living next to the Mississippi is that you don't swim in the Mississippi.
#101
TIL the process of making meat Kosher involves specifically the removal of the sciatic nerve due to the belief that Jacob had his sciatic nerve injured by an angel.
#102
TIL about Dorothy Molter who lived alone in the Northern Minnesota wilderness from 1948 until her death in 1986. Despite once being called "The Loneliest Woman in America" her remote cabin received upwards of 7,000 visitors a year with many stopping by to sample her homemade root beer.
Remi (He/Him) 5 months ago (edited)
That's way too many visitors! Would moving somewhere more remote have helped
#103
TIL that the first women in America to earn a PhD in computer science was a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Keller
Michael Largey 5 months ago (edited)
And if the programs made any errors, she rapped them on the knuckles with a ruler.
#104
TIL frogs will in fact try to escape a slowly boiling pot. The myth is based on 19th century experiments in which the frogs have had their brains removed before boiling.
Anthony Elmore 5 months ago
Animals that have had their brain removed no longer react to stimuli. Yeah, that fact checks out.
#105
TIL that standing underneath a tree during a storm is the second leading cause of lightning strike deaths
Michael Largey 5 months ago (edited)
But does not standing underneath a tree during a storm happen to be the first leading cause of lightning strike deaths?
#106
TIL that British WW2 rationing did not end until 1958.
#107
TIL in Sept 2023 MGM Resorts International & Caesars Entertainment were both hit by ransomware attacks from the same group. Caesars paid a $15m ransom instead of the $30m the attackers had demanded, however MGM refused to pay & had its operations shut down for several days which led to a $100m loss.
#108
TIL Boys in the United States used to wear dresses until they had their first haircut, which was usually around age 6-7.
#109
TIL the 2021 Astroworld Festival crowd crush event was not a random tragedy, but a result of several logistical decisions made by LiveNation including overselling the festival, security breaches at admissions, and poor crowd flow management
#110
TIL of Torpedo Juice which was drunk by sailors in WW2 by combining 180-proof ethyl alcohol with pineapple juice.
Ace 5 months ago (edited)
TIL that American "Proof" is not the same as British. I saw 180 and immediately thought that was not possible so looked it up. I was right, the British unit only goes up to 175, which is pure alcohol, but the American measure goes up to 200, so 180 is actually 90% Alcohol By Volume rather than 100%. Was always a stupid unit of measurement and this shows why all drinks nowadays are labelled with the ABV value instead of degrees proof.
#111
TIL that the Saudi dinasty, which unified Arabia and named the country after them, had to fight two other major dinasties over the control of Arabia, the Rashidis and the Hashemites, the Rashidis do not exist anymore but the Hashemites are kings of modern day Jordan
David Paterson 5 months ago
There was a time in history when the only survivors in what is now Saudi Arabia lived in the middle of the desert, probably because all the coasts had been plundered for slaves. This was a very long time ago.
#112
TIL that Woodrow Wilson is the only former Confederate citizen to be elected President. Born in Virginia in 1856, and serving from 1913-1921, he is the last President to be born into a slave-owning household.
#113
TIL that Blue Öyster Cult were forced to ban cowbells from their concerts after the SNL sketch, and never featured the instrument live until after it aired
#114
TIL on November 11, 1918, the US Navy's 14-inch railway guns were last fired at 10:57:30 to ensure that the shells would impact just before the 11am armistice
#115
TIL about Masanobu Tsuji, an Imperial Japanese WWII Army officer who helped plan enough campaigns that he was nicknamed the “God of Strategy”. A known cannibal, he evaded war crime trials, briefly became a politician, worked with the CIA, before finally mysteriously vanishing in Laos in 1961.
#116
TIL about John Doe No. 24, an black teen who was found wandering the streets in 1945. As he was deaf, and seemingly incapable of otherwise communicating, police were unable to identify him, and sent him various mental institutions until his death in 1993.
#117
TIL that from the 1940s through the 1970s, all Ivy League colleges and Seven Sisters colleges (as well as Swarthmore) required all incoming freshmen to pose nude ostensibly to gauge the rate and severity of rickets, scoliosis, and lordosis in the population.
#118
Today I learned that the Library of Congress added, “Spy Kids” (2001) into their national film registry as a, “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” movie.
#119
TIL that all the royalties for The Animals's version of The House of The Rising Sun went only to one person in the band because there was insufficient room to name all five band members on the record label.
#120
TIL that the population density of Manhattan is 40% lower now than it was back in 1910, when it reached its peak population of 2.2M, compared to its now-present population of 1.6M.
Arthur Waite 5 months ago
Question: Does 'population density' include those unfortunate souls living in encampments or on the street?
#121
TIL Warren Buffett’s investment prowess led to Berkshire Hathaway generating a 19.8% annualized return from 1965-2023, nearly doubling the 10.2% return the S&P 500 had over that time. In 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the first nontechnology company to top a $1 trillion market capitalization.
#122
TIL Alaska and Hawaii are tied for having the lowest record high temp among the 50 US states. They each have a record high of just 100 degrees Fahrenheit
#123
TIL: GPS satellites don't ever actually interact with GPS devices at all. 31 US satellites simply broadcast their position non-stop and GPS devices triangulate their own position using the location of 3 "nearby" satellites.
#124
TIL in 1977, Stu Ungar was bet $100,000 by Bob Stupak (a casino owner) that he could not count down half of a six-deck shoe and then successfully determine what the last 156 cards are. Ungar won the bet.
#125
TIL about Mats Järlström, a man who was fined for engineering in Oregon when he challenged the traffic light timing. He eventually won against Oregon’s 'Title Laws' and was proven right about the traffic light timing being too short for safety.
#126
TIL Jared Leto sent used condoms and a dead pig to his Suicide Squad co-stars while preparing for his Joker role. As part of his method acting, he mailed disturbing items—like a live rat, bullets, and adult objects. Many co-stars found it unsettling and called the experience disturbing.
#127
TIL producer Christopher Nolan initially opposed & tried to change director Zack Snyder & writer David Goyer's idea to have Superman k**l Zod at the end of Man of Steel. He told them "There's no way you can do this". However, Goyer convinced him with a scene where Superman k**ling Zod saves a family
#128
TIL an endocrinologist irradiated the testicles of Oregon and Washington prisoners. He gave them $5/mo, and $100 when they had to receive a vasectomy upon conclusion of the trial. The surgeon said it was necessary to "keep from contaminating the general population with radiation-induced mutants"
#129
TIL chewing gum influences appetite and leads to a decrease in the feeling of hunger, desire to eat, and desire to eat a sweet snack
#130
TIL Longinus, the man who is traditionally identified with stabbing Jesus in his side, is a saint. The lance he used to pierce Jesus with is usually called the Holy Lance. The act is also said to have made the last of the Five Holy Wounds of Christ.
Bill Swallow 5 months ago
Yup. A lot of loopy 'folklore' ascribes great mystical power to the Spear of Longinus, also sometimes known as the Spear of Destiny.
#131
TIL that the “He Who Has No Life” character that terrorizes the South Park children in the episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” was based on video game project manager Joey Ray Hall
#132
TIL that there is no evidence that Marie-Antoinette ever said the phrase “let them eat cake.” during the French Revolution
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