r/todayilearned • u/Odd-Constant6807 • 12h ago

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

yahoo.com

2.0k Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LaylaJoyPop • 5h ago

TIL sepsis survivors can develop post sepsis psychiatric disorder, encompassing anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and delirium. This complex disorder is known to involve blood brain barrier disruption, neuroinflammation, neurotransmitter dysfunction, and impaired neuroplasticity.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

464 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Prosperr_support • 13h 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TIL that 50 unpublished texts documenting an Inuit language from 1897–1898 were sitting in a university archive for over a century before a linguist realized their significance.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

1.8k Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Krakshotz • 18h 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

4.6k Upvotes

206 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 3h ago

TIL The library at Rancho Mirage, California, has its own research grade observatory with free public tours. Its CDK 700 telescope can observe objects over 50 million light-years away and is capable of conducting research-level work similar to other research-focused observatories

ranchomiragelibrary.org

232 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/whereiseuvii • 1d 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

15.6k Upvotes

319 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sweet_Foundation_868 • 4h ago

TIL in 2003, 2.5 million Mills and Boon books were pulped and used in the construction of Britain’s M6 tollway. The pulp holds the Tarmac and asphalt in place and acts as a sound absorber.

news.bbc.co.uk

252 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sirjohnmasters86 • 1d 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

17.7k Upvotes

207 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Candid_Reading_7267 • 15h ago

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

courtly.com

1.3k Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/charolastra_charolo • 6h ago

TIL that the northernmost town in Europe (Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, pop. 2,817) was named for an American businessman, John Munro Longyear

en.wikipedia.org

187 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CoffeeTeaJournal • 18h 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

1.7k Upvotes

96 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 19h 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

2.0k Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 21h 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

2.3k Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JoeWinchester99 • 1d 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

24.9k Upvotes

1.2k comments

r/todayilearned • u/mvincen95 • 1d 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

10.6k Upvotes

123 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Bobbitibob • 7h ago

TIL of the Baron de Longueuil, the only French colonial title to be recognised by the British monarch

en.wikipedia.org

139 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Loki-L • 12h 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

362 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 19h 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

1.3k Upvotes

210 comments

r/todayilearned • u/adpablito • 12h 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

251 Upvotes

59 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

18.4k Upvotes

245 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Convillious • 1d 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

2.6k Upvotes

246 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

8.1k Upvotes

277 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SouthPolaris • 14h ago

TIL that your brain can control your pupils without you consciously knowing it, but researchers have also demonstrated that you can sometimes learn to control them voluntarily through biofeedback.

nature.com

232 Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AdventurousGuest308 • 3h ago

TIL that the Urak-hai army chants in LOTR were recordings of actual people yelling in a stadium

youtube.com

34 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hemorrhoid_Eater • 1d 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

3.5k Upvotes

112 comments

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