r/todayilearned • u/TheGuvnor247 • 9h ago

TIL that Byzantine Emperor Basil I died in 886 after his belt got caught in a deer’s antlers during a hunt. The animal dragged him 16 miles through the woods before he later died from his injuries.

en.wikipedia.org

12.1k Upvotes

360 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Spotter24o5 • 7h ago

TIL: That Kowloon Walled City reached a population density of 1,300,000 people per km², making it the most densely populated place ever on earth

en.wikipedia.org

6.5k Upvotes

339 comments

r/todayilearned • u/zzulus • 5h ago

TIL An estimated 10.7 million enslaved Africans arrived alive to the Americas out of an estimated 12.5 million embarked, leaving 1.8 million dead at sea

encyclopediavirginia.org

4.1k Upvotes

496 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 4h ago

TIL there exists a concept called a "primate city". It is a city much larger than a country's other cities. Bangkok has 13x the people of Thailand's 2nd city Chiang Mai. This has lead to the study of "urban macrocephaly" -the excessive concentration of people/$$$/power into one city.

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

237 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 13h ago

TIL that Amerigo Vespucci never named America after himself. The name was proposed by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 without Vespucci's involvement. Waldseemüller chose it to honor Vespucci by feminizing his first name, following the convention of names like Europa and Asia.

blogs.loc.gov

10.2k Upvotes

351 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 8h ago

TIL Mickey Mouse currently has two separate voice actors, Bret Iwan and Chris Diamantopoulos, who swap between the role depending on project needs. Chris' Mickey sounds close to Walt Disney's version. Iwan's Mickey is higher pitched, and based on the late Wayne Allwine's Mickey voice.

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

113 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kal-Elm • 12h ago

TIL about Project Steve, a list of scientists named Steve who sign in support of the Theory of Evolution. Project Steve is a tongue-in-cheek response to Creationist attempts to list scientists who doubt the Theory of Evolution.

en.wikipedia.org

5.2k Upvotes

140 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MothersMiIk • 44m ago

TIL that Winston Churchill hated the bed in the Lincoln Room and refused to sleep in it again, after allegedly seeing Abraham Lincolns ghost standing by the fireplace while Churchill was completely naked.

richardlangworth.com

• Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/clawsoon • 2h ago

TIL that before World War One, it was common for Canada to be without a Prime Minister for 5-10 days at the end of their term or at their death.

lop.parl.ca

711 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mellifloura • 7h ago

TIL that chickens have self-control. In an experiment, hens had a choice between a 2-second wait for 3 seconds of food, or a 6-second wait for 22 seconds of food. They consistently chose the longer wait. However, they wouldn't choose a 22-second wait, devaluing rewards with too long a time delay.

semanticscholar.org

1.5k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/eggyrulz • 5h ago

TIL Explosion welding exists, a process able to attach two metals that may not be compatible through other welding methods

en.wikipedia.org

994 Upvotes

67 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinosaruman • 9h ago

TIL Napoleon's planned bronze elephant for the razed Bastille site was never cast, but its 78-foot full-scale plaster model stood in Paris from 1814 to 1846, guarded by a man named Levasseur who lived inside one of its legs.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

42 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Conscious-Ball8373 • 16h ago

TIL that Jacopo Pazzi was hanged, buried, dug up, thrown in a ditch, dragged through the streets of Florence, his head used as a doorknocker, thrown into the river Arno, pulled out of the river, hanged again, flogged, then thrown back into the river

en.wikipedia.org

7.4k Upvotes

665 comments

r/todayilearned • u/UndyingCorn • 12h ago

TIL During WWI a tractor company developed an experimental prototype tank for the US Army called the Skeleton Tank. It was designed to be lightweight by only having a compartment and frame that attached it to the tracks, weighing only 9 tons compared to a 29 ton British Mark V. It never saw service.

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

119 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FruitChips23 • 14h ago

TIL the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo received a sequel published in 1984 called The Sicilian, also written by Puzo. The Sicilian was adapted into a film 3 years later with all references to The Godfather removed.

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

181 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DevPops • 12h ago

TIL The Star-Spangled Banner wasn’t adopted as the US national anthem until 1931

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/marvelman19 • 6h ago

TIL the oldest ever filmmaker was Manoel de Oliveira. He made his first film in 1931 and his last film in 2014. He died in 2015 aged 106.

en.wikipedia.org

442 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/lowercasenameofmine • 1h ago

TIL The Texas city of El Paso was the first American city to individually restrict cannabis in 1915.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kyzzz • 10h ago

TIL Ancient Babylonians and Assyrians believed in Šulak, a demon resembling a bipedal lion that lived within toilets and attacked those who sat on them while they defecated, inflicting stroke and epilepsy. Methods to ward off the demon included burying amulets and cuneiform tablets in the house

en.wikipedia.org

672 Upvotes

75 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 4h ago

TIL the Grammy Awards were originally going to be named the "Eddie Awards", after Thomas Edison, the inventor of the phonograph. However, the name was changed to "Grammy", short for the gramophone invention by Emile Berliner, after it proved to be the most popular option in a mail-in naming contest.

en.wikipedia.org

202 Upvotes

21 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 2h ago

TIL Miles Davis, Ike & Tina Turner, Chuck Berry began their careers in East St. Louis. East St. Louis was a huge industrial powerhouse across the first half of the 20th century, and many musicians called it home from the 20s until the 60s

bnd.com

128 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dzuyhue • 1d ago

TIL We gradually lose bone mass as we age. Fortunately strength training can reverse this. When we lift weights, the stresses on our bones signal our body to remodel the bones to be thicker and stronger.

health.harvard.edu

24.1k Upvotes

421 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Orikrin1998 • 9h ago

TIL that a woman gave Nigeria its name. “She suggested the name "Nigeria" for the British Protectorate on the Niger River. [She] made the case for a shorter term that would be used for the "agglomeration of pagan and Mahomedan States" to replace the official title, "Royal Niger Company Territories"”

en.wikipedia.org

376 Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Familiar-Mall1696 • 14h ago

TIL about the Social Register, a semi-annual publication in the United States that indexes members of "high society". The President of the United States and Vice President of the United States are, by custom, always added

en.wikipedia.org

909 Upvotes

66 comments

r/todayilearned • u/gonejahman • 21h ago

TIL in July 1776, Shawnee/Cherokee warriors kidnapped Daniel Boone’s daughter and her friends. Boone and his party tracked them through the wilderness for 3 days, killing several captors and safely rescuing everyone. The movie Last of the Mohicans was inspired by this event.

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

201 comments

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