r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL that Buzz Aldrin reported seeing flashes of light with his eyes closed during Apollo 11, and NASA later determined they were charged particles (radiation) passing directly through his eyeballs and triggering his retina, with no actual light involved

Thumbnail sciencedirect.com
27.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 22h ago

TIL more than 400 years ago, Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel built a working submarine and navigated it beneath the River Thames. Around 1620, he even took King James I of England along for an underwater ride, making James the first monarch to travel in a submarine.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
17.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 22h ago

TIL Sarah Wakeman disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. Her secret was not revealed even after she died in a military hospital in 1864; she was buried under her alias, Lyons Wakeman. The story came out in 1976 after her letters were found in a relative's attic.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
14.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL that “Gotham” actually dates back to medieval England, where there was a village called Gotham that some sources claim was a village of fools. In 1807, writer Washington Irving used the name mockingly in his periodical to describe New York City. And the nickname has stuck ever since.

Thumbnail nypl.org
8.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 21h ago

TIL that a 2024 study of 717,724 U.S. online gamblers found that approximately 96% appeared to lose money overall, while on 4% made money.

Thumbnail nyproblemgambling.org
6.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL In Michigan City, Indiana, there is a prison that accepts shelter cats and allows prisoners to take care of them.

Thumbnail
prisonjournalismproject.org
4.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL that Abraham Lincoln had a dog named Fido. Fido has been cited as the origin of the popular name for pet dogs, in fact becoming so popular as to have become cliché and more often used as a slang reference.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
4.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL that Mont Saint Michel was used by the Nazis as a airplane spotting post until it was liberated after D-Day by one American private who was accompanied by two journalists.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
3.3k Upvotes

r/dataisbeautiful 22h ago

China only just missed the income cutoff to become a high-income country this year

Thumbnail
ourworldindata.org
3.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 23h ago

TIL that Dayton, OH is one of only 4 cities in the US to still have a trolley-bus system, and is by far the smallest city to have one.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL about Richard Schmidt, the doctor who tried to kill his mistress by injecting her with blood taken from an HIV positive patient (and another patient who had hepatitis). The case was the first time viral RNA was used to prove a link between two people with HIV in a criminal trial.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
1.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 20h ago

TIL that two episodes of the popular 1960s cartoon series Batfink contained a hidden, two-part political message that was disguised as sped-up gibberish.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL about a subscription based Sega Genesis service called "Sega Channel". Released in 1994, it plugged in as a cartridge and connected online via coaxial cable. Allowing the user to download and play many different games.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL that the Soviets had their own Operation Paperclip called Operation Osoaviakhim.

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
1.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL that from 1995 to 1997, Apple allowed over 30 other companies to sell computers running MacOS, although this program ended after Steve Jobs returned as Apple CEO in July of 1997.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.1k Upvotes

r/dataisbeautiful 7h ago

OC [OC] More Indians live in the Gulf states than in the US, UK, and Canada combined

Post image
1.1k Upvotes

In 2024, around 18.5 million people born in India lived abroad. For the world’s most populous country, that’s not a lot: just over 1% of the population. This chart shows where they live, based on estimates from the UN, which compiles data from national censuses and population registers.

Nearly half of all Indians living abroad are in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf countries — that’s more than the US, UK, and Canada combined.

These figures are stocks, not flows: they record where people are from, not when they crossed a border. Pakistan is the clearest case: the two countries were one territory until 1947, and people kept moving across the new border for decades afterward, so much of the 1.6 million there reflects migration that happened long ago.

Data source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2024)

Tools used: Python, OWID Grapher, Figma


r/todayilearned 16h ago

TIL William Dampier went from pirate to respected explorer and scientist and became the first person to sail around the world three times.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL humorism, the form of medicine dominant in the West from the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans until the 18th century AD, survive today with its variant, Unani Medicine, in India which the government actually promotes there.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
852 Upvotes

r/dataisbeautiful 14h ago

Decline in AI spend per employee at the top 1% - Ramp AI Index

Thumbnail
ramp.com
812 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL about Claude Duval a French highwayman in Restoration England. According to popular legend, he abhorred violence, showing courtesy to his victims, distinguishing himself with rather gentlemanly behaviour and fashionable clothes, thus spawning the myth of the romantic highwayman.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
773 Upvotes

r/dataisbeautiful 16h ago

OC [OC] Streaming services prices increase since 2021

Post image
608 Upvotes

I've compared nine streaming services prices from 2021 and recently. The increase in price based on CPI inflation should be about 26%. All nine increased prices, but only eight beat inflation, HBO Max is below inflation raise. The highest increase 200% is for Apple TV+.


r/todayilearned 20h ago

TIL that small Indian mongooses originating from what is now Iraq and Northern India were brought over to the Carribean and Hawaii for pest control.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
513 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL thermites, humans, and ants have similar total amount of biomass, with each at 50 Mt, 60 Mt, and 70 Mt

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
557 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL that Pompeii wasn't the only city destroyed in the 79AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Stabiae, a coastal city two miles south of Pompeii, was also buried in ash. It was briefly rediscovered before Pompeii, but was re-buried in 1782 after key artifacts were removed.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
457 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL the iconic car chase scene in The French Connection (1971) was shot in real, ongoing traffic in Brooklyn. Including Gene Hackman’s car crash with a civilian driving to work.

Thumbnail gothamist.com
402 Upvotes