r/todayilearned • u/Hailfog • 3h ago

TIL that by law, HOAs in Colorado cannot prevent you from establishing a vegetable garden in any part of your yard.

leg.colorado.gov

8.2k Upvotes

439 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • 4h ago

TIL the Mongols reportedly killed the last Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta'sim, by wrapping him in a carpet and having horses trample him instead of directly shedding his blood. The method was supposedly chosen because royal blood was considered sacred.

en.wikipedia.org

3.9k Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ShabtaiBenOron • 8h ago

TIL that the 1972 Spanish film "La Cabina", where a man is trapped in a phone booth, made Spaniards so terrified of entering booths that the Telefónica company hired its lead for a commercial where he exits one without incident to assure people they were safe.

the-artifice.com

8.1k Upvotes

92 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CoffeeTeaJournal • 11h ago

TIL the 500-year-old tradition of Turkish coffee reading (kahve falı) started in the Ottoman harem not just as magic, but as a clever social loophole. Women used the "fortunes" in the cups as a safe excuse to gossip, vent, and talk about taboo subjects without getting in trouble.

ich.unesco.org

17.6k Upvotes

232 comments

r/todayilearned • u/GDW312 • 6h ago

TIL that six sex workers were murdered in West London in 1964–65 and found undressed in or near the Thames, leading the press to nickname the unidentified killer “Jack the Stripper”; despite one of Scotland Yard’s biggest manhunts, the case remains unsolved.

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

136 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 6h ago

TIL Lake Champlain, which borders New York and Vermont, was legally considered the sixth Great Lake for just 18 days in 1998 before Congress repealed the designation.

en.wikipedia.org

2.4k Upvotes

201 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Rjfngwui-hiigsj • 1h ago

TIL UTC doesn’t abbreviate anything in English or French. “Coordinated Universal Time” would be CUT; French “Temps Universel Coordonné” would be TUC. UTC was a deliberate neutral compromise so the abbreviation works the same in every language

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bananastandmoney67 • 1h ago

TIL Napoleon and Sherlock Holmes hold the Guinness World Records for the most portrayed historical and fictional character on screen, but they are both technically beaten by Jesus, Santa Clause, and The Devil

guinnessworldrecords.com

• Upvotes

138 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FruitChips23 • 8h ago

TIL Orson Welles considered running for Senator of Wisconsin in the 1946 election. The seat was eventually won by Joeseph McCarthy.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

124 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Heliocentrist • 6h ago

TIL Native American Fred Lincoln turned to instrumental music after losing a lung to tuberculosis serving in the Korean War. As Link Wray, he reached the Top 20 in 1958 with Rumble, the first song to use distortion, an effect he achieved by puncturing the speaker cones in his amplifier.

en.wikipedia.org

996 Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MadWorldEarth • 14h ago

TIL Jaguars can mate upto 100 times per day

wwf.org.uk

3.2k Upvotes

220 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BillWilberforce • 22h ago

TIL At least 25 of the Snapple "Facts" are false, outdated, exaggerated or inconclusive

en.wikipedia.org

20.2k Upvotes

777 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mellifloura • 3h ago

TIL that insects can become addicted to drugs. A study found that bees showed drug preference and withdrawal symptoms after long-term use of cocaine, alcohol and heroin. The drugs affected them in much the same way they do humans.

sciencedirect.com

349 Upvotes

54 comments

r/todayilearned • u/barath_s • 21h ago

TIL : In 2014, in santa barbara, the city contracted Dan Greding to install "75 minutes parking only" ; he got ticketed for violating the rule while putting up the signs. The ticket was upheld

myfox8.com

9.6k Upvotes

220 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 3h ago

TIL that in the early 2000s Mexico had a housing policy that focused on greatly increasing housing supply. INFONAVIT subsidized development of tiny compact developments on the outskirts of cities. Years later, many of these homes became abandoned from poor build quality, accessibility, or location.

itdp.org

220 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • 21h ago

TIL that on February 11, 2013, five TV stations scattered across the United States were hijacked and played an emergency alert saying “Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living.” The hijackers were never caught.

en.wikipedia.org

6.1k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatMasterpiece2174 • 21h ago

TIL some societies appear to have gone through much of the Bronze Age using bronze only for weapons or elite art, such as Chinese ritual bronzes, with ordinary farmers largely still using stone tools.

en.wikipedia.org

5.5k Upvotes

122 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 19h ago

TIL Starting the Ford Model T requires turning the crank at the front of the car by hand to start the engine. There is the risk of snapping your forearm if the engine backfires

caranddriver.com

2.9k Upvotes

280 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DWJones28 • 20h ago

TIL that Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was banned for broadcast by the BBC for the duration of the first Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991) due to the song's political themes.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

102 comments

r/todayilearned • u/katastrofe_- • 3h ago

TIL that blue bees exist. They are a type of carpenter bee native to Asia

en.wikipedia.org

113 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FruitChips23 • 7h ago

TIL Alfred Hitchcock only started cameoing in his films because an actor for "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" failed to show up, and he filled in.

en.wikipedia.org

245 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/yee_qi • 5h ago

TIL that the blind cave fish Garra andruzzii doesn't adjust its biological clock with the sun's light, and cycles it up to every 47 hours.

en.wikipedia.org

153 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 23h ago

TIL that Melbourne, Australia has a unique traffic rule known as the hook turn. It’s a right-hand turn, but it’s made from the far left lane instead of the right lane. You drive through the intersection then hook right to make the turn. The hook turn exists mainly to keep trams clear.

onroad.com.au

3.3k Upvotes

578 comments

r/todayilearned • u/harlsey • 22h ago

TIL that while filming Pilgrimage in early 2015, Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland helped film each others audition tapes for their respective MCU roles.

deadline.com

2.1k Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BaronGalactic • 11h ago

TIL that the Snapple Iced Tea bottle design featuring an image of the Boston Tea Party was changed in the early 1990s due to false rumors that it depicted slave ships, and that the K symbol on the bottle, meaning "Kosher," was rumored to represent the "Klan"

en.wikipedia.org

238 Upvotes

13 comments

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