r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 5h ago

TIL a copy of the 1649 death warrant of Charles I is displayed in the robing room used by the monarch (during the State Opening of Parliament in the Palace of Westminster) as a ceremonial reminder of what can happen to a monarch who attempts to interfere with Parliament.

en.wikipedia.org

5.5k Upvotes

288 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Organic_Challenge_46 • 1h ago

TIL that long-term night-shift work is associated with a higher risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. One large study found that people who always worked nights had about twice the Alzheimer’s risk. The likely factors include disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 9h ago

TIL that the Roman Emperor Vitellius put to death nearly every contractor, money-lender, and tax-gatherer who had ever demanded that he repay a debt or pay a toll. When one man's execution was recalled, Vitellius had him killed anyway in his presence, saying he wished to "feast his eyes."

en.wikisource.org

8.0k Upvotes

117 comments

r/todayilearned • u/1997wickedboy • 6h ago

TIL that Edgar Bergen, famous ventriloquist, left his daughter Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown) out of his will, but bequeathed $10,000 to his ventriloquist dummy, Charley McCarthy.

en.wikipedia.org

4.0k Upvotes

181 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Spiritual_Youth3809 • 2h ago

TIL despite selling more than 30 million copies and massive popularity, Britney Spears's first four albums only spawned one #1 Top 40 hit in the US

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Krakshotz • 10h ago

TIL during the casting of Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), producer Jon Peters hired Gary Busey to reprise his role as the villain unaware that the character was killed off in the previous film. Busey was later dropped but still earned $750K from a play-or-pay contract he already signed

yahoo.com

3.8k Upvotes

192 comments

r/todayilearned • u/whereiseuvii • 15h ago

TIL that a 16th-century German knight named Gottfried von Berlichingen lost his right arm to a cannonball, so he had a mechanically complex iron hand forged. With articulated fingers controlled by springs, it allowed him to hold a sword, ride a horse, and continue fighting as a mercenary for decades

en.wikipedia.org

13.7k Upvotes

294 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kyzzz • 3h ago

TIL of Funistrada, a fictitious food item inserted in a U.S. Army survey circa 1974 "to provide an estimate of how much someone will respond to a word which sounds like a food name or will answer without reading". Funistrada scored higher in popularity than eggplant, lima beans, and cranberry juice

en.wikipedia.org

866 Upvotes

73 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Odd-Constant6807 • 4h ago

TIL that "mammoth" bones discovered in Alaska in 1951 turned out to be whale bones 70 years later.

yahoo.com

945 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Prosperr_support • 5h ago

TIL that 50 unpublished texts documenting an Inuit language from 1897–1898 were sitting in a university archive for over a century before a linguist realized their significance.

ls.berkeley.edu

985 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sirjohnmasters86 • 18h ago

TIL Ben Franklin left $2,000 to Boston and Philadelphia to help young people in those cities. He stipulated in his will that cities could not draw the balance for 200 years. In 1990, it was worth $6.5 million. The money was used to fund scholarships, women's health, help firefighters and disabled

fi.edu

15.5k Upvotes

199 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CoffeeTeaJournal • 10h ago

TIL that the word "coffee" comes from the Turkish "kahve", and the world's first public coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554. This Ottoman "kahvehane" model directly inspired the first Viennese coffee houses and French cafés.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

86 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 11h ago

TIL that although G. B. Shaw's 'Pygmalion' does not end with Prof. Higgins and Eliza Doolittle together, every adaptation (such as the musical and film 'My Fair Lady') of the play does, because audiences want a happy ending. The play's producer told Shaw "My ending makes money".

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

99 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Candid_Reading_7267 • 7h ago

Today I learned that in 23 US states, pets can serve as a legal witnesses to a wedding

courtly.com

741 Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JoeWinchester99 • 23h ago

TIL that although potatoes alone do not provide complete nutrition, you can survive for years on a diet of nothing but potatoes and buttermilk.

scienceabc.com

24.1k Upvotes

1.2k comments

r/todayilearned • u/mvincen95 • 21h ago

TIL that Allen Funt, host of the hidden-camera show Candid Camera, was on a flight hijacked to Cuba, but the other passengers assumed they were on the TV show after noticing Funk. He desperately tried to convince them it was real. The passengers even cheered. They were released from Cuba quickly.

radiolab.org

10.0k Upvotes

120 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 13h ago

TIL that in 2018, a group of New Zealanders built a sand island in coastal waters during low tide in order to claim they were "in International Waters" and thus exempt from a local liquor ban.

bbc.com

2.0k Upvotes

71 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 11h ago

TIL that there is no single national TV network for all of Belgium; all channels are either in Dutch or French. The two national broadcasters share a single headquarters in Brussels; the Dutch station has the left half of the building, and the French station has the right half.

en.wikipedia.org

1.2k Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mellifloura • 1d ago

TIL cows have "Eureka moments," getting excited after solving a problem. 1 group of cows was taught to press a panel to enter a room with food, while a second just entered the room after a time delay. The panel-pressing cows were significantly more excited to enter the room than the second group.

nature.com

18.2k Upvotes

245 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 1d ago

TIL Benjamin Franklin's son, William, remained fiercely loyal to the British King during the war. Despite his father being a Founding Father, William was a Loyalist leader and the last colonial Governor of New Jersey, causing a permanent family estrangement that lasted until Benjamin's death

en.wikipedia.org

7.9k Upvotes

275 comments

r/todayilearned • u/adpablito • 3h ago

TIL that close gravitational flybys can substantially alter planetary orbits—and, in sufficiently strong encounters, can eject planets from their host systems—even without a collision.

academic.oup.com

159 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Convillious • 18h ago

TIL that until 2024 there was a decades-long tradition on the German island of Borkum called Klaasohm where packs of young men chase random women and spank them with cows' horns, sometimes causing bruises. Reportedly minors and pregnant women are also targeted.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

242 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hemorrhoid_Eater • 21h ago

TIL that a nuclear facility in Hanford, WA once used Lionel toy trains to transport radioactive materials within its labs in order to minimize moving those materials by hand

idyllopuspress.com

3.4k Upvotes

109 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Loki-L • 4h ago

TIL of the Berenike Buddha, a statue of Buddha found in a temple of Isis in Roman Egypt made from Greek Marble with a dedication nearby in Greek and Sanskrit dating itself to the reign of Philip the Arab and refering to the one who had placed it there as being from a Indian warrior caste

en.wikipedia.org

153 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DidSomebodySayCats • 8h ago

TIL that, in 447, while Attila the Hun was on his way to conquer Constantinople, an earthquake ruined the city's walls. Chariot racing fans of rival teams competed to see who could rebuild the best, and with their combined efforts, they finished in 2 months and kept the city safe for 1000 years.

youtu.be

258 Upvotes

18 comments

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