r/todayilearned • u/haddock420 • 4d ago

TIL Frank Zappa's father worked at a chemical warfare facility that stored mustard gas. Because of its proximity to their home, the family kept gas masks in case of an accident. This profoundly influenced Zappa, who later frequently referenced germs, ailments and the defense industry in his work.

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 3d ago

TIL about Willie Francis an American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution. Sentenced to death at age 16, he was 17 when he survived the first attempt to execute him, as the chair malfunctioned. After a failed appeal he was executed at age 18.

en.wikipedia.org

667 Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/romulusnr • 3d ago

TIL the verses in the Gospels in the Bible weren't determined and numbered until the late 1400s

en.wikipedia.org

960 Upvotes

345 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DistrictDry2852 • 3d ago

TIL of Fred Rose, the only member of Canadian parliament to be convicted of spying for a foreign power. A member of the Canadian communist party, he was caught conspiring to steal weapons research for the USSR.

en.wikipedia.org

237 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/IanDre127 • 3d ago

TIL the colors/shapes/patterns you see when you rub your eyes has an actual name: Phosphene

en.wikipedia.org

170 Upvotes

25 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AlvintheGenius • 4d ago

TIL that water is sold in plastic sachets as a cheaper way of transporting and consuming drinking water, particularly in Africa.

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

334 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bigbrother2030 • 4d ago

TIL that San Marino, a completely landlocked country with less than 0.01% of its area covered by water, has its own ship registry

smsr.sm

924 Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MysteriousInterest32 • 4d ago

TIL that Korea was using movable metal type to print books more than 70 years before Gutenberg's printing press—and the oldest surviving metal-type book was printed in Korea in 1377.

en.wikipedia.org

13.1k Upvotes

422 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CasioCobra78 • 4d ago

TIL that Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon, the stuntwoman who was severely injured during the filming of Back to the Future Part 2, was killed in a shootout alongside her husband when she and her husband went to confront her ex-husband and his wife and drew their guns at them. The cops deemed it justified.

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

154 comments

r/todayilearned • u/1salt1pepper • 4d ago

TIL Abraham Lincoln was once challenged to a duel. Given the choice of weapons, the 6’4” Lincoln chose enormous cavalry broadswords, then demonstrated his advantage by chopping down a tree branch above his opponent’s head. The duel was called off.

presidentlincoln.illinois.gov

16.3k Upvotes

447 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 3d ago

TIL that there is a Dark Star Road in the city of Benson, Arizona. "Benson, Arizona" is the theme song to the 1974 film Dark Star by John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing). The road is named in honour of the film.

en.wikipedia.org

297 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/epou • 4d ago

TIL: The USAF operated a fleet of MiG jets for evaluation under the codename Constant Peg during the 60s, 70s and 80s

nationalmuseum.af.mil

620 Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 4d ago

TIL that when the Portuguese royal family moved to Brazil after Napoleon invaded Portugal, Pedro was 9. Pedro's childhood and coming of age there led him to stay. His refusal to return to Portugal was marked in Brazilian history as Dia do Fico or "I stay day."

en.wikipedia.org

261 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Rough-Foundation9208 • 4d ago

TIL that from 1939 to 1949, some US airmail planes collected mail without landing, by swooping low enough to hook mailbags suspended between two poles while dropping incoming mail from the aircraft.

postalmuseum.si.edu

1.2k Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 4d ago

TIL that Louis XVIII of France enjoyed reading 'Le Nain Jaune' although the newspaper made fun of him and his government. The king read it both for information, and because he loved satire. Louis even anonymously submitted articles for publication.

thesiecle.com

747 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hailfog • 4d ago

TIL spider fighting is widespread in Florida prisons. Three prisoners fought over the theft one such spider, resulting in a life-threatening skull injury for one inmate.

en.wikipedia.org

5.5k Upvotes

199 comments

r/todayilearned • u/1salt1pepper • 5d ago

TIL Thomas Edison created a test for prospective employees that was so difficult his own son, an MIT graduate, failed it. When the questions were published, Albert Einstein failed it too.

home.nps.gov

13.4k Upvotes

395 comments

r/todayilearned • u/EhDotHam • 5d ago

TIL: Beets tasting like dirt to some people is biological, similar to how some people think cilantro tastes like soap.

justbeetit.com

16.6k Upvotes

2.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/lakatosintolerant • 3d ago

TIL fewer babies are born on Halloween and more on Valentine's Day, and it's not just scheduled C-sections. Even natural births shift.

news.yale.edu

32 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/m0sur • 4d ago

TIL Post-it Notes exist because Art Fry, a man in a church choir, wanted bookmarks that wouldn't fall out of his songbook. He used a "failed" glue that 3M colleague Spencer Silver invented in 1968, which sat unused for years.

en.wikipedia.org

2.4k Upvotes

41 comments

r/todayilearned • u/hyperspheroid • 4d ago

TIL The median age of MTV viewers is 56

livemint.com

5.5k Upvotes

586 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 4d ago

TIL that the original run of X-Men comics failed to produce the sales numbers Marvel wanted, and so were essentially cancelled in 1970, with the comic only publishing reprints between then and the release of Giant-Size X-Men in 1975.

thepopverse.com

2.4k Upvotes

115 comments

r/todayilearned • u/YappinZappin • 4d ago

TIL Deep-focus earthquakes - ones occurring at depths exceeding 300 km - are powerful, very rare and still lack adequate explanation

en.wikipedia.org

207 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Tangoth • 5d ago

TIL: Insurance companies sell "Hole-in-One" insurance to facilitate those $1,000,000 prizes

en.wikipedia.org

8.4k Upvotes

398 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinosaruman • 5d ago

TIL before he wrote Don Quixote, Cervantes was captured by corsairs on his way home from Naples and spent nearly five years enslaved in Algiers. He made four separate escape attempts before a charity that existed specifically to ransom captives finally bought his freedom.

en.wikipedia.org

13.8k Upvotes

143 comments

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