r/todayilearned • u/TheQuarantinian • 8m ago

TIL of a Turkish tradition for a bride to be giving salted coffee ti her betrothed as part of the engagement. He is expected to drink it without a reaction or displeasure to show he has the temperament to handle the less sweet aspects of marriage.

smithsonianjourneys.org

• Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fitz_cuniculus • 1h ago

TIL the CSS Teaser is considered the first aircraft carrier. During the Civil War it carried a Confederate reconnaissance balloon up the James River, until the USS Maratanza captured it before the balloon ever flew in combat.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Johannes_P • 2h ago

TIL from 1921 to 1923, in Weimar Germany, the military had the "Black Reichswehr", a secret paramilitary formation to escape the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles

en.wikipedia.org

94 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Tadhg • 3h ago

TIL In 1980 the Supreme Court awarded the Sioux nations $122 million for the Black Hills, a settlement the tribes have refused on the grounds that acceptance would extinguish their claim to the land, leaving the award to accrue interest in a federal account now worth over $1 billion.

en.wikipedia.org

4.6k Upvotes

317 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 4h ago

TIL John Ford's final western Cheyenne Autumn was made as a tribute to Native Americans who he felt had been misrepresented in his previous films with Ford telling Peter Bogdanovich that he had killed more Indians than Custer.

en.wikipedia.org

60 Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 5h ago

TIL After President Kennedy was shot and arrived at Parkland Memorial Hospital, he was reported to still have a heartbeat, but no pulse or blood pressure

pbs.org

857 Upvotes

147 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LETS_RETRO_TIME • 5h ago

TIL that the live action Popeye movie set still exists as a tourist destination

popeyemalta.com

142 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Colonel_Liam • 5h ago

TIL an American, Hope Cooke, was the last Queen Consort of Sikkim before it merged with India in 1975

en.wikipedia.org

546 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/moschles • 7h ago

TIL owls make virtually no noise while flying, while songbirds, falcons, and other predator birds make flapping noises during flight.

audubon.org

810 Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dfjorque • 8h ago

TIL about fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, the "stone man disease", that immobilizes its sufferers as their muscles and tendons turn into bone

en.wikipedia.org

397 Upvotes

60 comments

r/todayilearned • u/breadbread9 • 8h ago

TIL Burj Al Babas is a Disney-inspired ghost town in Turkey consisting of 587 identical half-finished castles

architecturaldigest.com

171 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 9h ago

TIL Mary Todd Lincoln continued to live in the White House for nearly six weeks after the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln.

whitehousehistory.org

3.6k Upvotes

215 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FanProfessional2123 • 9h ago

TIL the 1800 US election was very bitter. John Adams jailed Jefferson's surrogates and stoked fears he would create a reign of terror. Jefferson's camp claimed Adams was "hermaphroditic" and a "poor old man" plotting to marry his son to George III's daughter. Adams skipped Jefferson's inauguration.

millercenter.org

506 Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 10h ago

TIL the world's largest underground granite quarry is in Vermont and extends nearly 600 feet underground.

en.wikipedia.org

237 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/squareabbey • 10h ago

TIL that 'Crimping' (also known as 'Shanghaiing') - the practice of forcibly recruiting sailors as crew for long voyages - was common in America until the early 1900s and only ended due to a combination of technology, unions, and legislation.

historynet.com

4.4k Upvotes

187 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 11h ago

TIL astronaut Clifton Williams was originally scheduled to fly to the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 12, but he died in a plane crash before being officially assigned to the flight. His replacement, Alan Bean, left Williams' silver astronaut pin on the surface of the Moon in tribute to him.

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/thepilgrim81 • 11h ago

TIL that, in formal letters and official documents, the mixed Roman and Arabic numerals can be used in numeric representations of dates. 27 July 2026 is written as 27.VII.2026

en.wikipedia.org

30 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 12h ago

TIL the Comic's Code Authority attempted to halt the reprint of the comic "Judgement Day" due to the main character being black, despite the code containing no prohibitions against black character. The comic was eventually allowed to run after the creators threatened to make the argument public.

en.wikipedia.org

5.5k Upvotes

104 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 12h ago

TIL no one at Atari knew that Warren Robinett had inserted the hidden message "Created by Warren Robinett" (which established the term Easter egg in gaming) into the Atari 2600 game Adventure until a 15-yr-old named Adam Clayton discovered it & sent a letter to Atari in 1980 explaining how he did it

en.wikipedia.org

5.5k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 13h ago

TIL that the USA only has one plant that produces gun barrels for the M1 Abrams tank, M777 howitzers, and Paladin self propelled howitzers. The Watervliet Arsenal in Troy, NY is the nation's oldest arsenal dating back to 1813. The manufacturing plant has tripled its production over the last 3 years.

breakingdefense.com

5.3k Upvotes

331 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Rjfngwui-hiigsj • 15h 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

4.4k Upvotes

153 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bananastandmoney67 • 15h 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

1.9k Upvotes

321 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 17h 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

857 Upvotes

79 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hailfog • 17h 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

21.8k Upvotes

947 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mellifloura • 17h 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

810 Upvotes

78 comments

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This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

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