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30 Facts That Made Someone Stop And Say, ‘I Can’t Believe I Didn’t Know That’ (New Facts)
Did you know that the “red” in “red velvet cake” may have come from the addition of beetroot during the great depression? Even if this fact is, by and large useless unless you make a living doing pub quizzes, there is something about little details like this that just feels nice to our brains.
So we’ve gathered some new and interesting facts to equip yourself with for your next trivia event. Prepare to take some notes as you scroll through, upvote the most interesting ones and share your own examples in the comments below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL Sequoyah, an illiterate warrior of the Cherokee Nation, observed the "talking leaves" (writing) of the white man in 1813. He thought it was military advantage and created a syllabary for Cherokee from scratch in 1821. It caught on quickly and Cherokee literacy surpassed 90% just 9 years later.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 9 months ago
The Korean writing system has a similar history. If these things interest you, have a look.
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David 9 months ago
not entirely from scratch, he took the Latin Alphabet and added symbols for the sounds they had in their language that were not in English. However at the time of the Trail of tears, the Cherokee had a higher college degree rate than general American society, over 10 daily newspapers, and more. They had poetry, arts, etc, and its why many Whites protested the Trail of Tears, because Whites who lived near them came to respect them as equals.
Cosmos in your eyes 9 months ago
The Sequoyah Museum is close to where I live! His young daughter helped him greatly. Her name was Akyoka and deserves a lot of the credit, too.
Phine Colella 9 months ago
The cherokees also had some of the best system of education for both men and women in America a little after that!
Rich Black 9 months ago
wait - he invented his own alphabet to defeat european settler in battle?
RELATED:
#2
TIL Frederick Douglas did not know his actual birthday, so he chose Feb 14, because his mother referred to him as her little Valentine.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
Douglasss - he used 2 s's in his name - was an incredible, inspiring man.
Tim Douglass 9 months ago
I'm curious who he took the name from - but not curious enough to research it right now.
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#3
TIL in 2022 an 18-yr-old student, who did genealogical research as a hobby, cracked the unsolved 1964 m*rder of a 9-yr-old girl in Hazleton, PA. He researched for 18 months & created 50 complete family trees to find a connection to Hazleton which eventually led him to zero in on culprit James Forte.
WindySwede 9 months ago
BP, where the text and picture are a lottery of what you'll get!
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Heffalump 9 months ago
The student's name is Eric Schubert. BP pictures a young woman here, because, as we all know, on this site, diligent young students are all women, just as grown a*s scientists are depicted as (white) men.
#4
TIL that despite being advised by his professor not to pursue physics because “almost everything is already discovered,” Max Planck went on to develop quantum theory and win the Nobel Prize.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
I had a similar thing happen to me in college, just on a smaller/less impressive scale - I was pursuing a geology degree because I love rocks. I REALLY love rocks. I had an old, bitter geology teacher at one point for one of the lab courses. He learned I was actively pursuing a geology degree and talked me out of it during the course. He said that the only two jobs that were available for geology majors any more were teaching geology or working for a big oil company. He said there were no more "fun" Indiana Jones-esque geology jobs where a geologist could wander the world and find neat rocks. I was very young (my mom made me start college at 14) so I believed him. It was the 90s, so we didn't have widespread, expansive internet then either - I couldn't really go online and google "jobs for geologists". But I've regretted letting him talk me out of my geology degree ever since XD
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Definitely a Human 9 months ago
That's like not getting into art because everything's already been painted
Kelly Hartle 9 months ago
Around 1900 if was suggested that the US Patent Office be closed for the same reason.
#5
TIL of Robert Grosseteste, a 13th century English bishop who correctly proved that rainbows are formed from refracted light. He then (very roughly) theorized an idea similar to the Big Bang theory. His sainthood was denied due to rumors that his ghost murdered the pope.
David 9 months ago
But..but.. the Pope is chosen by God and is supposedly in close contact. Catholics obey him because his word is supposed to be God's word. My point being - if the church believes all that, how come they believe someone's ghost murdered the pope and God let it. LOL Also, TIL at least 7 Popes are suspected of being murdered.
Bookworm 9 months ago
For a while there it was pretty dangerous to be a Pope - your rival Pope might try to off you.
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Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 9 months ago
"So Jimmy, you say Robert's ghost killed the pope! How do you know?" / "I was in the room when it happened. Saw it with my own eyes." / "And you were the only other person in the room?" / "Yup." / "OK then, no further questions."
Lila Allen 9 months ago
I would love to know exactly how those rumors got started.... I mean seems like a great way to avoid prosecution.
#6
TIL that "Weird Al" Yankovic is one of only five artists to chart on the Billboard Top 100 each of the previous four decades. The other four are U2, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Kenny G.
Jnausicaa 9 months ago
Weird Al was also allowed to graduate from his university if he promised to not pursue a Master's degree or a license for what would have been his profession. As it was, the tape he made in his bathroom and sent to Doctor Demento put him on his way. The song on the tape was either "Yoda" or "Another One Rides the Bus."
Andi 9 months ago
Billboars: Andy Williams: '50s, '60s, '70s, '10s, '20s. Andy Williams. ... Michael Jackson: '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s. ... Mariah Carey: '90s, '00s, '10s, '20s. ... Jay-Z: '90s, '00s, '10s, '20s. ... Snoop Dogg: '90s, '00s, '10s, '20s. ... Britney Spears: '90s, '00s, '10s, '20s. ... Elton John: '70s, '80s, '90s, '20s. ... The Beatles: '60s, '70s, '90s, '20s. In Uk - Cliff Richard - with albums Cliff Richard is the only artist to reach the Top 5 of the UK album chart across eight consecutive decades! 1950s to 2020s! 6 decades only for singles ... loser! :)
#7
TIL a man who received a bone marrow transplant was found that the DNA in his blood and semen had been completely replaced by that of his donor.
Norm Gilmore 9 months ago (edited)
As with many things on the internet, sometimes they sound to good to be true. But nope. It actually happened. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/dna-bone-marrow-transplant-man-chimera-chris-long-forensic-science-police-a9238636.html
Feathered Dinosaur 9 months ago (edited)
It's always a good idea to store semen or egg cells before undergoing heavy chemo if you still want children
Amy O Davis 8 months ago
ELEMENTAL on Amazon Prime had a murder case that included this fact. I THINK season 1.
Load More Replies... Jaya 9 months ago
DNA is fascinating and complex. Fun fact: some intersex people have 2 different sets of DNA in their body, for instance XY in some parts of their body and XXY in other parts.
#8
TIL after doctors removed a mass from a 47-yr-old man's lung that they believed was a malignant tumor, they discovered it was a Playmobil toy traffic cone that he had swallowed on his 7th birthday in 1974. His airway was able to adapt, which is most likely why he didn't show symptoms until he was 40.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
Nope, not inhaled. "Aspirated". It's what happens when something that is supposed to be ingested (food, drink, medication, small plastic toys) is diverted to the trachea accidentally during the act of swallowing. The epiglottis no longer protects the trachea, and whatever is being swallowed diverts to the trachea from the esophagus. A lot of times it's minor and doesn't cause any horrendous issues, but it CAN lead to foreign bodies in the lungs, lung infections, pneumonia, etc. I'm sadly VERY familiar with aspiration. My dad had massive atrophy of his muscles after being in a coma for 6 months following his accident, and my mom kept trying to feed him foods by mouth after he woke up. He would aspirate food and liquids constantly and had perpetual pneumonia for a long time, until my mom finally gave up and had a feeding tube put in. So no, the guy in this story didn't "inhale" the traffic cone, he aspirated it while trying to swallow it.
Load More Replies... Rachel Pelz 9 months ago
Did the cone still have the orange stripes? We had those cones and other Playmobil toys...first generation.
#9
TIL you can't legally buy Jack Daniel's whiskey in the town where the Jack Daniel's distillery is located, since it's a "dry county". It's legal to distill alcohol, just not legal to sell.
JB 9 months ago
Does the gift shop sell $100 paper bags that come with a complimentary bottle of Jack?
Just_for_this 9 months ago
basically 🤣 they're 'special' bottles that are commemorative which somehow bypass the law. they also do tours that include a 'tasting' session, im not a huge whisky drinker so my companion had about 8 shots before leaving.
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Paul Sloan 9 months ago
On the bright side, you can still marry your 14 year old cousin in the county.
John Dilligaf 9 months ago
I'd be willing to bet that they decided to keep it a dry county just because it gets gets people talking about their product. "Jack Daniels produced in a dry county". Free publicity.
DeoManus Argentem 9 months ago
A lot of places sell "chits", similar to poker chips at casinos, in areas that are dry or have limited hours when they're allowed to "sell" alcohol. You just trade it for your drinks. Police don't even care unless you're drunk driving or being a nuisance, even if they actually "sell" it to you. I used to work nights and got off between 2-4am (couldn't sell alcohol after 2am here) and sometimes wanted a sixer - even w cops in the shop, nobody cared.
2WheelTravlr 9 months ago
Last time I checked, transporting alcohol involves semi trucks and trains, not thousands of people drinking the beverage at the source then somehow excreting it in original form at another location.
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#10
TIL Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, was so good at Tetris that Nintendo Power magazine eventually stopped publishing his high scores because he dominated the leaderboard.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
A good friend of mine, Jonas Neubauer, was the Tetris World Champion several times over, and was also the world record-holder for highest points for a while. He died in 2021 of a sudden cardiac arrhythmia (leading to cardiac death) while on vacation in Hawaii. He was only 39. We miss him. I always think of him when I hear something about Tetris :(
Lila Allen 9 months ago
Oh that's so sad. What a cool legend to leave behind though.
Load More Replies... David 9 months ago
The Great and Mighty Woz! Remember, he did all the hardware for the original apple products and was a visionary for computer hardware.
Heir of Durin 9 months ago
Interesting! He never won? I saw a kid won Tetris in 2024 and was the first to ever beat it.
PFD 9 months ago
That's because it was technically impossible previously. Iirc, first there was a coding error that caused a glitch at a certain level. After Nintendo fixed that (a couple of years ago I think) the game maxed out because of hardware limitations. The kid who beat it was running an emulator.
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#11
TIL about Kalachi, Kazakhstan, a village plagued by a mysterious 'sleeping sickness' that caused residents to fall asleep for days at a time. Scientists eventually linked it to carbon monoxide poisoning from a nearby abandoned uranium mine.
#12
TIL that in 1920, French President Paul Deschanel fell from a moving train at night while wearing pajamas. Disoriented, he approached a railway signalman, claiming to be the president. The signalman, doubting his sanity, reportedly replied, "And I'm Napoleon Bonaparte."
Rich Black 9 months ago
how do you "fall from a moving train, in your pajamas"? did he get outside the train, and start climbing around at night?
#13
TIL 55% of the world's population aged 15 and older can't swim.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago
And something like 20% of Americans cant read. Seriously, in the USA 1 out of 5 adults can't read.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
And of those who can, most can't read beyond a 6th grade level. The trend is worsening, and with Trump determined to dismantle the Dept. of Education, I fear for the future of this country. Well, that and a lot of other reasons. But with more of the population uneducated, the easier it will be for the Hitler-wanna be's to succeed.
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Tucker Cahooter 9 months ago
I'm in the 0.00001% of Australians who can't swim. Based on past attempts at learning I would probably drown in the Dead Sea too
mandy the capibara 9 months ago
That must be difficult in such a hot climate! What made it difficult for you to learn it? Genuinely curious, not at all judgemental :)
Load More Replies... Fat Harry (Oi / You) 9 months ago
Swimming is on the national curriculum in the UK. All pupils must be taught how to swim in either Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 of their school life. Makes sense, what with us being an island and all.
Huddo's sister 9 months ago
Australia has compulsory lessons too. The highest risk group for drowning is now migrants /tourists as well as 40-50 year old males who drink or take risks showing off around water.
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LauraDragonWench 9 months ago
I can't imagine not knowing how to swim. Then again, I fell into a pool at 6 months old and immediately began paddling around (even as my dad jumped in to rescue me, clothes, shoes, glasses, and lit pipe).
2WheelTravlr 9 months ago
Babies naturally swim without training, there's something called the innate swimming reflex that hangs around until around the time they start to crawl.
Load More Replies... Verena 9 months ago
Might be connected with your surroundings. If you live in an area without natural bodies of water, other skills are more impirtant. If you live in the Netherlands, you absolutely need basic swimming skills.
Auntriarch 9 months ago
Sailors used to refuse to learn to swim, reckoning that if their ship went down, swimming would only prolong the agony
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David 9 months ago
Well you have to first deal with all the people who dont live near large bodies of water for swimming, and then urban populations who cant afford to swim, and it makes sense. If you are poor, the only way you learn to swim is if you live in areas with lakes to learn
MisterE 9 months ago
There are public pools in urban areas where you can swim for free or next to it. People are passing down their fear of water to their children and not exposing them to being in something bigger than a bathtub. I am fearful of heights because of my mother. I could learn to be ok with it though, the same as learning to swim, or ice skate, or skiing.
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#14
TIL “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion from the movie Titanic was playing in the dining hall when the Costa Concordia crashed in 2012.
LooseSeal's $10 Banana 9 months ago
Maybe don't show Titanic on cruise ships. Or The Poseidon Adventure.
Colleen Glim 9 months ago (edited)
Right?! Feels like the gods are going “hold my beer”
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Smeghead Tribble Down Under 9 months ago
Have absolutely loathed that song since the very first moment I heard it in the 90s, and boy did it get flogged during the 90s >.< It makes my skin crawl.
Cindy Brick 9 months ago
We actually saw THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE on a cruise...some crew members with a sense of humor, no doubt!
#15
TIL Kathleen Caronna was in a month-long coma after a Thanksgiving Day parade float knocked a lamppost onto her head in 1997. She bought a nice apartment with the settlement money and 9 years later, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his plane into her high rise and the engine landed in her bedroom.
Victor 9 months ago (edited)
Yes https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/new-york-woman-coma-thanksgiving-airplane-crash-726978-20250214
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Nikole 9 months ago
Why? She was owed compensation. Cursed money generally refers to ill-gotten funds.
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TIL Thomas Jefferson once spent $1400 (in today's dollars) just to ship a stuffed moose to France to prove that America had large animals.
Earthquake903 9 months ago
And politicians are still finding more and more expensive ways to measure their junk
mria alternativa 7 months ago
Ironically because their junk doesn't measure up...
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Laura Gillette 9 months ago (edited)
The prevailing belief in Europe was that the climate of America (somehow??) caused everything--animals, plants, and even people--to be smaller and less abundant. "Since the mid-18th century, European naturalists had proposed that animals, vegetation, and even humankind degenerated on the American continent due to the climate." They thought American moose had to be smaller than European moose. But American moose are bigger (the Alaskan moose is the largest subspecies of moose). And of course, the climate has no impact on the size or number of animals, plants, or people. It was just more Euro-superiority complex BS. https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/american-moose/
Rich Black 9 months ago
I will bet you couldn't send a "stuffed moose" to france today - either by ship, or by air - for just $1,400 dollars.
#17
TIL In 2002 German actor Günther Kaufmann confessed that he had fallen on his accountant and accidentally suffocated the man to death with his 260-pound body. But in 2005 it was discovered that Kaufmann was innocent and had confessed to protect his dying wife who had m*rdered the man.
Bookworm 9 months ago
You would think that someone would have noticed he (presumably) wasn't suffocated to death when they did the autopsy
Nicola Roberts 9 months ago
My guess is he was suffocated just not the way Gunther said. His wife could have sufficated him with another body part.
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superfluous 9 months ago
More complicated than it seems. Kaufmann’s initial confession led to a 15-year prison term, but while he was incarcerated, police arrested three other men, who were also convicted of the Munich murder. Authorities also determined that Kaufmann’s late wife Alexandra had likely been involved in the killing, driven by debts she owed Hagen. https://variety.com/2005/biz/news/plot-thickens-in-teuton-case-1117916348/
Donna Peluda 9 months ago
I remember a episode of 1000 ways to die where.a guy suffocated doong a 69 with a big girl on his face.
Colleen Glim 9 months ago
You would think that somebody would have wondered how he “fell” on someone and didn’t think to get up
#18
TIL about Timothy Clark Smith, who, due to taphophobia (fear of being buried alive) is famous for having a grave with a window and being buried with a bell on his hand.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
Back in the day when it was sometimes impossible to know if someone was dead or just comatose, there were many burials where a bell or chime was included to let someone know the occupant was still alive. However, if no-one was around to hear said alarm, it really didn't matter. It's scary to think about how many premature burials there would have been. That's one of my nightmares. Thank you Edgar Allan Poe.
Colleen Glim 9 months ago
The condensation on the inside of the window makes me want to run away screaming
Michelle C 9 months ago
Given the phenomenon of “dead ringers” in the Middle Ages, that some people would have a fear of being buried alive still isn’t surprising.
LooseSeal's $10 Banana 9 months ago
Some years after his death, amid the stifling blackness of a moonless midnight, we stopped dead in our tracks as a haunting RING RING pierced the nighttime silence.
Sam Trudeau 9 months ago
For those who don't know, before they invented the stethoscope, a coma and death were hard to differentiate, save for things like missing head. So they'd have things like a bell on the coffin in case they weren't actually dead. Furthermore, George Washington, 1st American President, asked on his deathbed that they wait two days before burial, in case he wasn't actually dead.
Catharina Geerts 9 months ago
There was a time when many people had a bell over their grave, attached to their hand somehow, out of fear for being buried alive - which could actually happen at the time, because of poor diagnostic abilities and such. Also, there was a time when I had the same fear and wished it was possible for me to get a similar device
Donna Williams 9 months ago
How would a bell work? Did he arrange for guards to check on him for a week or whatever?
#19
TIL about skunk cabbage - a Canadian plant that is capable of creating temperatures tens of degrees above ambient in order to melt its way through frozen ground! Thanks to this truly Canadian feature, skunk cabbage blooms while there is still snow and ice on the ground.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
I've even seen early-blooming daffodils surrounded by snow. In the US, mid-Atlantic states.
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Richard Graham 9 months ago
Also Canadian skink cabbage is very polite. As it melts snow it says "Excuse me, eh? Pardon me, eh?"
Bryn 9 months ago
And it's not strictly a Canadian plant. It grows like weeds in the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
Colleen Glim 9 months ago
Not so much. Because we don’t have to pay for ours
Load More Replies... #20
TIL that after admitting responsibility for over 12,000 deaths in the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge, Kang Kek Iew aka Comrade Duch asked the war crimes tribunal to acquit and release him. They did not.
Rich Black 9 months ago
"You say you want a revolution . . . well, you know we all want to change the world"
#21
TIL Kayden Kross ,the p*rn actress, started her career because she wanted to save a pony from being slaughtered, she needed to get enough funds to buy the pony which made her start s***pping.
LauraDragonWench 9 months ago
Can we please, for the love of our remaining collective sanity, stop censoring words! For crying out loud! Anyone who gets offended by the words "porn" or "stripping" has way bigger problems.
Lousha 9 months ago
Made her start shopping? Shipping? Skipping? Can we maybe act like adults who aren't afraid of words?
prashanthemm 9 months ago
I actually thought, shopping, huh, why would she start shopping, sounds anti-climactic. Stop censoring words BP.
Load More Replies... Wang Zhuang 9 months ago
It actually took me a few moments to register that stripping was the censored word
MushroomHead22 9 months ago
that sounds like the plot a porn0. they should have used this and made a movie and they say "based on true events".
#22
TIL Spain is in the "wrong" timezone because Franco aligned it with N*zi Germany in 1940, and it was never changed back.
Verena 9 months ago
As are Andorra, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. All belong technically to the British time zone. They keep the "wrong" time due to the easier exchange across borders. I live at the Dutch west coast, our "noon" is at 12:49. With daylight saving 13:49. Which is dangerous for the many German tourists, because they grow up (as I did) with "be careful between 11h and 14h, because sun is fiercest and temperature hottest". It is the hottest at 15h to 17h. And *sigh*, no, this is not related to military. In Europe every hour of the 24 hours of a day has its own unique number. Makes communication about appointments so much easier.
Huddo's sister 9 months ago
In Australia we have apps to check UV ratings now because the sun is dangerous more than just between the hours we used to be taught. Sometimes you need sun coverage all day, even if it's overcast.
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Pittsburgh rare 9 months ago (edited)
They want to revert it to our actual timezone and it'd be utterly depressing for the east coast, so most people want to leave it as is. But well intended scientists and Galicians want to change it for our own good, so we're screwed 🙄
#23
TIL that 2 men tried to sue Universal Studios for $5m over false advertisement, after they paid $3.99 each to watch the film "Yesterday", only to discover that Ana De Armas, who appeared in the trailer, wasn't in the film.
General Anaesthesia 9 months ago
They lost: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/aug/30/a-self-inflicted-injury-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-claiming-yesterday-trailer-tricked-ana-de-armas-fans
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David 9 months ago
Well, actual damages would 4 bucks each and maybe bus ticket / gas. Which leaves convincing a jury that the situation somehow caused you 5 million in pain and suffering / trauma. Just ask the manager for your ticket price. I've only done that once and there was no question asked. But I've read that's pretty standard if you walk out.
David 9 months ago (edited)
Rachel, Like in Star Wars it was "long ago and far away". When I was in HS in the 70s I figured $20 was more than enough for a basic date of say two movie tickets, two burger meals and the gas for my car. In the mid 90s I lived near Denver. Brand new movies that ballpark. From the internet: "In 1995, the average price of a movie ticket in the United States was $4.35" And one mall also had a dollar theatre where the movies were not first run but they only cost a buck. It was a great way to catch up on movies you missed without spending much.
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Chewie Baron 9 months ago
She did film a scene for the film but it ended up on the cutting room floor. In the scene, she’s with Jack on The Late Night show with James Cordon, and Cordon asks if Jack can make up a song right now. He gets his guitar and starts singing ‘Something’ to her.
Definitely a Human 9 months ago
That's a terrible reason to go watch a film though. The premise itself is interesting enough.
Donna Peluda 9 months ago
The only thing I got out of the movie, was how xhit moder music is, talking about you Ed. It was ear opening to listen to old songs for most of the movie only to have Ed spoil it at the end. The film was krap and it could have been really good.
Definitely a Human 9 months ago
Ah yes, because all modern music is Ed sheeran. I will admit, he was pretty cringey in the film though
Load More Replies... #24
TIL about a 747 hijacking where the jet had to land in Algeria to refuel. The lead flight attendant actually had to buy 6,000 gallons of jet fuel on her personal credit card because the Algerians insisted on payment first.
Heir of Durin 9 months ago
Phew. Good thing it wasn’t my credit card or everyone on that flight would be in big trouble. 😂
David 9 months ago
The Algerians really needed the money after that one prince got away with all those millions. /j
Sven Grammersdorf 9 months ago
No, it isn't. Jet fuel averages $6.31 per gallon today, so that's almost $38,000
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zerofoxgiven 9 months ago (edited)
I did a little math since I work at an airport and I'm in charge of fueling services and also the lucky one to charge the pilots/airlines for it... Had to do some exchange since we sell liters for euros, no american bullshít. 6000 gallons = ~22712 litres. We charge 1,4 euros per liter (currently, but obviously it changes). So they have to pay ~31800 euros = ~34458 USD (Yeah, I'm bored at work right now, waiting for the cargo to arrive.) If they don't want the airline to pay by bank transfer, the captain usually pays with a company credit card, but sometimes there are technical issues and the card is not accepted, so then the pilot just whips out their personal card and pays with their own money. Not for just the fueling, but all the airport services, so it's not a small amount of money.
zerofoxgiven 9 months ago (edited)
Fun story, since I'm still waiting for the cargo. When the US Army came to refuel their Black Hawk (from a ?training? mission from Romania - we are in Hungary), they simply gave the US Army card with the card number and code to me and let me walk back to the office to do the paperwork and invoices by myself, did not even bother to be safe about it. That was my second month working here, not even a full employee yet. Also, when they wanted to depart, they had to turn back to the airport after takeoff, because the Black Hawk malfunctioned, and they spent weeks stranded in our small city during Christmas season. They departed in secret when the airport wasn't even open, totally unprofessionally, and one of the soldiers clogged the toilet. They also thrashed their rental car. Fun times.
Load More Replies... Definitely a Human 9 months ago
...how? It's not like getting fuel in a car. You don't pull up to the Bowser and instead your credit card
#25
TIL Peter Sellers inhaled poppers before having sex with his wife one night to get "the ultimate orgasm" but instead suffered 8 heart attacks over 3 hours.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago
RIP. He was a comedic Genius. We will not see his kind again.
Charlie the Cat 9 months ago
Otherwise known as Amyl Nitrate. It can give you a high when inhaled. It is legal to buy in the UK.
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Grace Note 9 months ago
Horrid man but hugely talented. One of my favourite things from him is a strange little audio, a parody of a travelogue, Balham, gateway to the south. It's glorious.
#26
TIL that a BBC report found that 80% of personal loans taken out by UAE men were used for wedding expenses; as a result, many Emirati men opted to marry "less demanding" foreign women. In response, the government created a fund giving grooms money if the bride was Emirati.
David 9 months ago
TIL UAE citizens are called "Emirati". Also that UAE is apparently a bit racist. Kind of weird they don't want you fall in love with a non Arab.
T'Mar of Vulcan 9 months ago
They want to keep Emiratis 'pure' as well. Because they are a minority and the people who go over there to work for low wages, who might even live there permanently and might be born there, aren't citizens and never will be.
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WakandaPanda 9 months ago
TIL people in Dubai don't like 'The Flintstones' , but the Abu Dhabi do !
MushroomHead22 9 months ago
TIFO (figured out) that yaba daba doo and scooby doobi doo are the same syllable; much like ABC and twinkle twinkle little star
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Austzn 9 months ago
Yeah weddings are expensive. I got married in a courthouse and then had lunch at a burger joint, it was perfect.
jonesnori 9 months ago
Mine was a little more than that, but still cheap. The biggest expense was plane tickets for my three relatives who couldn't have come otherwise. One of them was a professional organist and played for the wedding (on the dying pipe organ our church had - she had to rearrange the music on the day, because different pipes worked than the day before).
Load More Replies... #27
TIL Britain was connected to continental Europe 9,000 years ago by strip known as Doggerland. Doggerland is now submerged.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
Or the way the Bering Strait once connected what is now Russia and Alaska.
Lara Verne 9 months ago
There was similar "strip" that connected Asia and North America - Bering land bridge.
Rachel Pelz 9 months ago
Well, to be fair, I never heard about Doggerland at school.
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Rich Black 9 months ago
then the polar ice caps started melting and the rest is history. sea levels rose. the earth does not normally have polar ice caps. only during ice ages . . .
#28
TIL Coca-Cola sold for 5 cents for over 60 years.
Joshua David 9 months ago
I recently learned that coca cola still used the plant as flavoring but extracts all the cocaine out of it. It's the only company in the US allowed to do that.
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Erik Biesemeier 9 months ago (edited)
Planet Money did an episode about this if you want to know why.
Allen Packard 9 months ago
If you want to get mad, google how much the dollar has diminished in value since we went off the gold standard.
Kit Black 9 months ago
Looks like they got mad - and as usual, at the messenger...
Load More Replies... Richard Graham 9 months ago
This is still stuck in my mind from my childhood 70 years ago "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot...12 full ounces that's a lot....twice as much for a nickel too...Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you!"
nottheactualphoto 9 months ago
Pepsi was 12 ounces to Coke's 8, so not twice as much. Pepsi was (sued? prosecuted?) for false advertising, after which they changed the jingle lyric to "lots more fun for a nickel too."
Load More Replies... #29
TIL After Breaking Bad, many m*th manufacturers in real life dyed their product blue.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 9 months ago
Actually knew a guy in the 90s who cooked his blue. Never touched the stuff myself but you run into a lot of interesting people in rural USA.
Bec 9 months ago
It's been 20 years ago, but they were adding pink dye to a common meth ingredient (anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer) to try to stop theft, as it was assumed the dye would make it appear impure
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
And now, these days, we have "pink cocaine" as an actual thing XD
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Sara Frazer 9 months ago (edited)
huh, never saw the show myself but I do recall the first time I tried MDMA it was in pill form in the shape of this at-the-time popular cartoonish style of Walter White's face, and was in fact blue. I do know enough about the show to know that it was not MDMA they were manufacturing but again, that show was reeeaaally big at the time lol. Tho I guess it is close since the "MA" in MDMA does stand for m3th amphetamine...there are many good reasons why I only tried it a couple times
Billo66 9 months ago
You can solvate electrons in a non-polar solvent but it's what you do with those electrons that determine your fate. Just sayin.
#30
TIL There is a Disney super-fan that has ridden the Cars ride, Radiator Springs Racers, over 10,000 times. He will often ride it in excess of 20 times a day.
#31
TIL that Pittsburgh had a fake Burger King. In 2014 a TV station revealed that a location of the fast food chain was using plain brown bags and odd recipes. Burger King had revoked the license but the franchisee continued until the news report, after which it became "South Side Burgers".
#32
TIL that the person who destroyed most Axis planes during WW2 was not a fighter ace but a SAS commando.
Ace 9 months ago
Point of order, members of the SAS are called troopers, they'd get very upset if you called them commandos. The term commando was used for the specialist teams of Royal Marines created in WW2, and originally only referred to the unit as a whole, not the individual soldiers therein.
UKGrandad 9 months ago
The actor, David Niven, was one of the members of the inaugural Commando unit.
Load More Replies... Dana Jane Minter 9 months ago
'Unsurprising, you just have to watch Rogue Heroes to see how badass they were
David 9 months ago
great show, though not the most historically accurate, especially how they did Paddy Mayne dirty. They made Mayne into this drunk rough Irishman. He went to boarding school, came from the elite of Ireland (protestant of Scottish ancestry and descendent from a Baron), had a law degree from the Queen's University Belfast and practiced law before the war. Had been a Golf, Boxing, and Rugby champion as well. Before the SAS served in the Scottish Commandos and led troops in Lebanon against Vichy forces. And while the show got it correct, Stirling first met him when he was in Jail for punching a superior officer, and that he loved getting into bar brawls, he was not known to get drunk or be a drinker, and was never drunk in front of General Montgomery. In fact Mayne loved to write poetry, and traveled with books to read during downtime. He went into Sicily with half his pack being history books. He was a scholar. Also the show shows him as an extreme risk taker and endangering
Load More Replies... Adrian 9 months ago
British special services. The ones who stormed the Iranian embassy siege.
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DC 9 months ago
But, british and american fighter pilots were sent home after they've done a set number of missions, for bomber crews, this was 25. If it differed for fighter crews, I don't know, but they sure got sent home, to train their replacements' replacements, and to survive. The german fighter pilots, on the other front, weren't sent anywhere but up in the skies, if there was enough gasoline available, until they were rendered unfit for flight by the results of their flying, like being dead, injured, captured. There was no limitation, as pilots were the scarcest ressource from early 1944 on, so the more talented out of them would fly and collect victories for as long as they were able to. Were the allied pilots forced to remain in actual frontline service for the remainder of the war at one point, they might just as well have piled victories over victories, like a very limited number of german pilots did. A vastly larger number, on both sides, ended the war with 0 kills.
UKGrandad 9 months ago
While that's all true, the SAS weren't involved in aerial combat. They operated far behind enemy lines, destroying enemy aircraft on the ground by infiltrating airfields and planting timed explosives on the aircraft. So while the enemy was focused on watching the skies for air raids, small units of SAS troopers were sneaking in on foot and were back out again before the explosions started.
Load More Replies... #33
TIL the character "Mr. Hankey" from South Park was based on how Trey Parker's father toilet-trained him as a child. Trey said he refused to flush the toilet, so his father told him if he did not flush down his stool, which he called "Mr. Hankey," it would come to life and kill him.
#34
TIL that King Louis IX was captured and imprisoned for six weeks in Egypt in 1250 during the Seventh Crusade. He was ransomed for the equivalent of one-third of France’s GDP, while nearly all of his army was massacred. 20 years later, he died in Tunisia while on another crusade.
Annik Perrot 9 months ago
And was canonized after his death. All the "St Louis" in the world are named after him.
#35
TIL 6 years after Martha Stewart started her own catering company in 1976, a publisher (impressed with her chef skills) got her to write a cookbook which launched her career. By 1999, she consolidated her "media empire" & took it public which made her the first female self-made billionaire in the US.
Cindy Brick 9 months ago
Ummmm.... Martha didn't write that cookbook by herself! She gave very, very little credit to the person who helped her.
#36
TIL in the weeks leading up to D-Day, due to the enormous stress he was under, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was smoking six packs of cigarettes, drinking 24 cups of coffee, and averaging two hours of sleep every day.
David 9 months ago
I mean to be fair, he was running the operation for the largest invasion in world history, involving 5 beachheads, run by 3 different countries, with 160,000 troops from over 12 countries serving in 5 different command structures, etc. And he had to make sure everyone worked together, deal with all egos, different political interests, military rivalries, etc. I think its a miracle he didnt collapse. There is a reason why Churchill said the Ike wasnt the best tactician, but he was the best organizing general he ever saw, and called him a natural politican the way he handled on those issues.
RedHairedDragon 9 months ago
If I drank 24 chips of coffee a day, I wouldn't be able to sleep at all. Good thing that one of the highest responsible men for D-day was well rested
Francois 9 months ago
Probably the bit about amphetamines (liberally given to service men) was edited out.
Load More Replies... #37
TIL motoring journalist Chris Harris got temporarily blacklisted from reviewing or buying Ferraris after publishing an article in which he accused the company of specially tuning their press cars to perform significantly better in magazine reviews than the production cars customers were buying.
#38
TIL Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph listing three accomplishments. Being 3rd President wasn't one of them.
Michael Largey 9 months ago
Many people at the time felt that his presidency had not been as successful as it should have been, and Thomas Jefferson was one of them. And he was both preceded and followed by presidents who were regarded as more successful.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 9 months ago
John Adams was the second president. Jefferson was third.
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#39
TIL: The Hittite plague was one of the diseases that helped caused a Bronze Age collapse alongside smallpox and lasted 2 decades. It is considered the first recorded form of biological warfare as Hittites brought infected rams to enemies. It was also named, "The Hand of Nergle" in ancient tablets.
Ace 9 months ago
Nergal, in case someone else is trying to look it up as I just did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittite_plague
Auntriarch 9 months ago
Thank goodness, nergle is such a Round the Horne word
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
I would! I have a Space Marines army ;)
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
Most of the Chaos Demons have names from actual mythology XD
Load More Replies... Billo66 9 months ago
Just Rams? Usually they just chucked dead and bloated bodies over the wall at you. Biological warfare at it's finest. Can you imagine? Don't try. I am amazed at the atrocities I find that never in my wildest dreams would that cross my mind. How can one human think to do those things to another living thing? Makes my stomach hurt.
#40
TIL edible gold is a particular type of real gold authorized by the European Union and the United States as a food additive, under the code E 175. It is used in haute cuisine as part of a trend towards extravagance in meals. It has to be pure, to avoid any type of infections or perils for the body.
Lord of the laserprinter. 9 months ago
A large part of the world is starving while persons who are “especially challenged” put gold in their poncy food.
Michael Largey 9 months ago
And s**t it out sitting on their gold toilets.
Load More Replies... Belle Cos 9 months ago
I once accidentally bit on a piece of foil that was the wrapper to a Hershey’s kiss. Because I bit it between two metal fillings, and created a magnet and hurt like hell. Would gold foil do the same?
superfluous 9 months ago
Diane de Poitiers, a member of the court in 16th century France, drank a daily tonic of gold chloride mixed with diethyl ether to maintain a youthful appearance. It probably killed her. (Horrible History Stupid Deaths)
Billo66 9 months ago
Do they still make Goldschlager Vodka? I used to drink it sometimes, I didn't feel precious. I felt like a drunk guy who poops gold.
#41
TIL about Peter Hagendorf a German mercenary who fought during the 30 years war and kept a diary. In it he casually describes the death of several of his children, being shot and abducting women.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 9 months ago
I doubt he recorded these events casually. Perhaps he recorded the facts surrounding the deaths but didn't feel the need to record his feelings as he didn't think he'd forget those.
#42
TIL that 78% of New Zealand is Uninhabited.
#43
TIL that the film Top Gun: Maverick was actively supported and influenced by the United States Department of Defense and the United States Navy to present the U.S. military in a positive light and aid in recruitment and retention.
Bookworm 9 months ago
There's tons of movies like this. I'm pretty sure the DOD has a whole department that offers filmmakers access to real military equipment and locations in exchange for being allowed to read scripts and make sure they present the military positively.
David 9 months ago
they do, and productions they like can get actual access to real US military bases, use real fighter jets, and even get loaned military personnel if needed as extras. Stargate Continuum got the US Navy to let them meet up with an actual nuclear sub above the artic circle and film on it with the actual crew while it was on duty.
Load More Replies... David 9 months ago
The DoD has an entire section devoted to working with the entertainment industry to have shows and movies portray the US military in a positive way. Each branch has their own division for things involving their service branch. They even authorize the use of actual military personnel and equipment for such productions. Famously the show Stargate SG-1 had the USAF loan them real SF's, and even use real fighters for the show. Twice the Air Force Chief of Staff appeared on the show, and they even loaned a real USAF Burial detail crew for an accurate funeral. When they were filming their film Continuum to finish off the series, once scene was to use a Submarine. The USAF contacted the US Navy for them, and loaned them for filming above the artic circle an actual Nuclear Sub and used the crew for actual filming!
Ange Marsden 9 months ago (edited)
It was supported by Scientologists for the same reason amiright?!
Francois 9 months ago
Really? I would have thought the army would prefer Icemen over Mavericks.
Jane Doe 9 months ago
Icemen were not going to enlist between the snack bar and parking lot. Mavericks were. 😂 They had a different recruitment campaign for long term planners.
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#44
TIL - When Alice Cooper played his “School’s Out” concert in 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, he had a helicopter fly over and drop women’s panties on the crowd.
#45
TIL in 1530, the chinese Ming Dynasty invented bronze-iron composite cannons. The Dutch claimed "it’s scarcely possible to find their equal outside of Ming Empire". After manchu Qing dynasty's conquest they deprioritised Gunsmithing and had to use 100-300 years old cannons against British Empire.
Kira Okah 9 months ago (edited)
They didn't need to, tbf. The Qing left cannonsmithing to Chinese artisans, who developed the Shenwei Grand General - a composite metal cannon of unparalleled splendour - in the 18th century. It was these 100 year old cannons that were brought into use in the Opium Wars, the British were absolutely shocked at them, the composite construction was something not seen in British gunpowder constructions until 1847.
#46
TIL about Patricia Meehan, a woman who was involved in a car crash on Montana Highway 200. After the crash, she was observed acting strangely and wandered off, disappearing into the night. Despite over 5,000 supposed sightings of her, she has never been located.
Pyla 9 months ago
I've done that drive, it's beyond gorgeous, but it's wild on most of it. Plus I remember these little white crosses Mt puts up where fatalities occurred. It was peppered with them. I am sure she could have wandered into the Clark Fork or something and game over. Mother nature subscribes to the Werner Herzog school of "you gonna die either way" kind of thinking.
#47
TIL: Beaufort's Dyke, a deep ocean trench between Ireland and Scotland where the UK has dumped over a million tons of surplus munitions including nuclear waste. Occasionally some munitions wash up on the surrounding shores.
Verena 9 months ago
Every country seems to have this. The Dutch are now starting to worry, because the stuff starts to leak
liam newton-harding 9 months ago (edited)
The twatwaffle, and Latin mumbler Boris Johnson proposed the construction of a bridge over this particular piece of treacherous sea floor…as a distraction that he was very, very close to actually being arrested…and it had to be explained to him…using crayons…the sheer tonnage of munitions down there, that would impede every moment of the fairytale construction.
#48
TIL about ''execution of nine relations'' from china in which a criminal's spouse, kids, grandkids, parents, grandparents ,cousins, aunts and uncles, inlaws would all be killed. Usually only used in cases of treason though sometimes this was used for crimes as mundane as libel.
Rachel Pelz 9 months ago
Reminds me of an interview with a dissident from Chile (I believe) who said torturers would put his naked six week old baby on his naked belly and threaten him to give him electroshocks if he didn't "cooperate".
#49
TIL far beneath the pacific ocean, at the boundary between the earth's molten mantle and its outer core, there is a continent-sized natural structure called Jason.
Agfox 9 months ago
There's also one called Tuzo beneath Africa. There's an interesting article about these & other geological oddities here: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230605-the-hidden-mountains-lurking-deep-within-our-planet
David 9 months ago
"Jason" refers to a large, continent-sized blob-like structure located deep within the Earth's mantle, specifically beneath the Pacific Ocean, which is considered a "Large Low-Shear Velocity Province" (LLSVP) and is named after geologist W. Jason Morgan; it is one of only a few such massive structures, with the other major one being called "Tuzo" under Africa.
Laura Gillette 9 months ago
Is this like how the flow of time in the afterlife is shaped like the words "Jeremy Bearimy"??
#50
TIL A latin teacher incited 3 of his students to assassinate the cruel Duke of Milan, an act they've been groomed for since childhood. Instead of being hailed as heroes, one was killed by the crowd, and one killed by a guard after he run towards a group of women and got tangled in their clothing.
RedHairedDragon 9 months ago
Out of curiosity, I googled this since I've never heard about it. One man was killed by a guard after getting tangled in some church cloth (the murder took place in a church). The same man was dragged through the streets after death. The other two made their escapes but were soon arrested and sentenced to death. Neither Assassin were "groomed", but had all suffered some injustice by the Duke.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
1476. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeazzo_Maria_Sforza#Assassination
Load More Replies... #51
TIL that in 1992 CNN Headline News came seconds away from mistakenly announcing that President George HW Bush had died on a trip to Japan.
Agfox 9 months ago (edited)
Probably the time he fainted at an official dinner after vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister's pants
Rachel Pelz 9 months ago
Still feel sorry for him despite never liking his politics.
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 9 months ago
A dangerous moment for vice president Dan Quayle, as Secret Service agents had their guns pointed at him awaiting confirmation, obeying a long-standing order.
#52
Til about king Henry ii and his son Henry the young king. Henry Jr led several revolt’s against his father. Despite this they never stop loving each other. When Henry II learn Henry jr had died he said "He cost me much, but I wish he lived to cost me more”.
Chewie Baron 9 months ago
Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, encouraged all of her sons to rebel against their father. Two other sons would sit on the throne after their father, Richard I, Coeur de Lion and John, he of the Magna Carter.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
I am quite positive that absolutely no one referred to Henry the Young King as "Henry Jr."
Michael Largey 9 months ago
No, they called him "Indiana", just like the dog.
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Laura Gillette 9 months ago
Why do people get so apostrophe happy? Do they think the letter S is afraid of other letters and needs to be separated by one?
#53
TIL about Tongyangxi a Chinese practice in which a family would agree to adopt and raise a girl and in exchange she would agree to marry one of there sons when they reach marriage age.
Kira Okah 9 months ago
童养媳? The term itself is commonly translated as "child bride", though a literal translation is "child raised daughter-in-law". From what I know, this was a form of arranged marriage pretty much exclusive to poor families, and was very unsuccessful. It's quite outlawed now.
GirlFriday 9 months ago
And this is how my religious extremist relatives do it. When the man finds a young girl that he deems to be worthy, his family takes her in and she helps around the house and helps raise the children until she is of age. Then she becomes the man's wife and another young girl or two is found. The man gets eight or nine wives and the wives get servants.
#54
TIL that the movie Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut was so long (3 hours and 14 minutes), that it had an overture at the beginning and a 3 min intermission in the middle of the film where you watch a photo of Balian sitting with his fellow Crusaders after a battle to a special musical score.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
Well. After I saw that movie with my ex (who was still my boyfriend at the time) I remember liking the sound of the name "Balian" so much that I used it as a character name in MMOs and other games for a while. I feel like that wasn't all that long ago.... the movie came out in 2005 XD I feel quite old now!
#55
TIL: Mars bars are made of 60 percent sugar.
Verena 9 months ago (edited)
I am surprised that somebody is not aware of candy consisting mainly of sugar. Maybe this might be a trigger to check the list of ingredients and nutritional values on the packaging of food and drinks.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
I'm aware, I don't care. I have candy so rarely that when I do, I want to think about how much I enjoy it, not nutritional values.
Load More Replies... Ace 9 months ago
Yes, it is true that a certain proportion of the nougat layer is recycled Mars bars. At the very end of the production line there is (or used to be when I worked there in the 1980s) a manual process to move the bars onto racks to take to the packaging line, and if the operator had to step away for a minute for whatever reason they would just pile up on the floor, from wher they would be shovelled into a bin and latere wheeled beck round to an earlier point in the line where they were fed into a hopper and remixed into the processing.
Load More Replies... Auntriarch 9 months ago
One of my regular rants: look at the ingredients in order, it's not a chocolate bar, it's a sugar bar!
Fellfromthemoon 9 months ago
Chockolate is half sugar and half fat. Add the layer of caramel (sugar).
#56
TIL A phenomenon called "change blindness": An experiment found that nearly half of people failed to notice when the person they were talking to was replaced with someone else after a brief visual distraction.
Heir of Durin 9 months ago
This has to be the case only if you don’t personally know the person you’re talking to. Otherwise, what?
Atom Bohr 9 months ago
Yeah, this was done with a person asking for directions. Then some kind of distraction would walk between them, and a different person would step in and continue the conversation
Load More Replies... T'Mar of Vulcan 9 months ago
Not surprised. I couldn't pick most of the kids I teach out of a lineup. (I'm really bad with faces.)
Huddo's sister 9 months ago
Reminds me of the episode of Taskmaster where they switched out things in a scene and the contestants had to guess the changes. I don't think anyone worked out that they changed a person!
#57
TIL the founder of North Face, Douglas Tompkins, was killed in 2015 in a kayaking accident while traveling with long time friend Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, in Patagonia, Chile.
HardBoiledBlonde 9 months ago
TIL, a few decades back, a friend's son attending University created "South Butt" tshirts and he was sued by North Face. North Face won.
Rachel Pelz 9 months ago
As my kid tends to say when pieces of information have limited relevance: a bag of rice fell over in China today.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
A lot of people like the North Face and/or Patagonia brands. Just because it's not relevant to you doesn't mean it's not relevant to someone who likes the North Face/Patagonia brands or to someone who likes kayaking.
Load More Replies... #58
TIL “Aqua Dots” were recalled for containing a chemical that metabolizes to the controlled substance GHB when ingested.
Bored Sailor 9 months ago
They are beads and a batch made in China when ingested would cause memory lapses, other wise known as the date rape d**g, someone figured it out and of course adult people stared purchasing the toy just for these.
Sue User 9 months ago
Not so fun fact: I cannot take over-the-counter cough medicine because the dextromothorphan causes my body to become super hyped.
Broad Panda 9 months ago
Dxm is banned here in NZ because of the psychological effect it induces.
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 9 months ago
They are beads that you spray water on so they stay together. I remember the recall but didn't know what it was for.
Load More Replies... #59
TIL "Bank of America" was actually founded as the Bank of Italy in 1904.
#60
TIL in ‘22 Jim Carrey considered retiring from acting, and producers confirmed they wouldn’t recast Robotnik if he did. But they hoped to entice him with a great script. Carrey requested it be written in gold. In ‘24 Carrey confirmed his return for Sonic 3. Fowler joked the 24k ink script cost $100k.
#61
TIL about Gabriel's horn, is a type of geometric figure that has infinite surface area but finite volume.
liam newton-harding 9 months ago
Also a Menger Sponge, and a Dragon Curve. Fractals are wonderful things.
#62
TIL that women's brains appear about three years younger than men's of the same age in terms of metabolism.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
https://medicine.washu.edu/news/womens-brains-appear-three-years-younger-than-mens/
Load More Replies... #63
TIL about the Puckle Gun, an early automatic weapon designed to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Muslim Turks. Square bullets were believed to cause more severe wounds than round ones.
#64
TIL A city treasurer stole over $50 million over the course over over 20 years from a small rural town in Illinois, crippling the infrastructure due to budget shortages.
Pyla 9 months ago (edited)
This is Rita Crundwell. There is a great doc. She basically had control of the bank accounts, created extra ones the city did not know about and through fake invoices paid herself millions. She also blew it on show Quarterhorses (a subject that I will offend QH breeders if I digress, but let's just say more money than horsemanship), and bankrupted the town.....They only found it because she was out once (she often went to shows), and the secretary called the bank and asked for a list of accounts (that Rita forgot to give her) and she discovered the slush funds. The whole town's infrastructure was crumbling because Rita got super greedy and not one person had the system audited properly. Fascinating to me.
GirlFriday 9 months ago
Dixon, IL - population 16,000, birthplace of Ronald Regan. She stole the money over more than 20 years by siphoning off money from each and every department a little at a time. She averaged taking 2.5M each year that she was the city's controller.
#65
TIL that three Leicester City players including the son of its former manager created a scandal that involved taping an orgy in Bangkok with local prostitutes before the seasons' start. The replacement manager then went on to win the Premier League as extreme underdogs at 5000/1 odds.
SheamusFanFrom1987 9 months ago (edited)
James Pearson, Tom Hopper, and Adam Smith. Note that Pearson was the son of the manager at the time, Nigel... Nigel's replacement aka the Underdog Champ manager was Claudio Ranieri. Talk about a shock to the system back then...
#66
TIL Fidel Castro was imprisoned for a year in 1953 due to a failed coup before becoming Prime Minister of Cuba in 1959.
#67
TIL that Napster was active for just 2 years, from June 1999 to July 2001.
Joshua David 9 months ago
They tried to relaunch it as a pay site but it failed because people stared using lime/frost wire.
#68
TIL Shakespeare likely died on his birthday, April 23.
Auntriarch 9 months ago
He may even have been born on his birthday. No I'm not being sarcastic
#69
TIL Google’s 2004 IPO used a Dutch auction, where investors bid the highest price they’re willing to pay, and everyone gets shares at the lowest price that clears all available stock (the market-clearing price).
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchauction.asp
Load More Replies... #70
TIL Max Payne was originally named Max Heat and 3D Realms spent over $20,000 trademarking the name before someone at the company suggested Max Payne, which was immediately adopted.
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Verena 9 months ago
"TIL" is not equal to "this is a proven fact". But it is always a nice read
Jaya 9 months ago
Petition to change TIL to TIHSSWMOMNBT (Today I Heard Some Story Which May Or May Not Be True)
Load More Replies... WindySwede 9 months ago
Even more when Pandas fact check these things. Not always 100% true.
Load More Replies... Verena 9 months ago
"TIL" is not equal to "this is a proven fact". But it is always a nice read
Jaya 9 months ago
Petition to change TIL to TIHSSWMOMNBT (Today I Heard Some Story Which May Or May Not Be True)
Load More Replies... WindySwede 9 months ago
Even more when Pandas fact check these things. Not always 100% true.
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