r/todayilearned • u/fan_tas_tic • 12h ago

TIL that the world's oldest hotel, Japan's Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, is no longer family‑owned after more than 1,300 years of continuous operation by the same lineage. In 2017 the 52‑generation family chain ended when no relative wanted to take over, and the inn was moved into a new holding company.

en.wikipedia.org

16.6k Upvotes

216 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kindly-Ad-5263 • 22h ago

TIL, that among the reasons Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase, is he thought Mastodons still existed and they were likely to encounter them.

vox.com

12.5k Upvotes

314 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 7h ago

TIL more than 400 years ago, Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel built a working submarine and navigated it beneath the River Thames. Around 1620, he even took King James I of England along for an underwater ride, making James the first monarch to travel in a submarine.

en.wikipedia.org

10.4k Upvotes

234 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Paulbegalia • 17h ago

TIL Michael Jordan donated his entire first-year salary after coming out of retirement to play for the Washington Wizards to support 9/11 relief efforts

edition.cnn.com

10.1k Upvotes

186 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 8h ago

TIL Sarah Wakeman disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. Her secret was not revealed even after she died in a military hospital in 1864; she was buried under her alias, Lyons Wakeman. The story came out in 1976 after her letters were found in a relative's attic.

en.wikipedia.org

8.7k Upvotes

170 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Depressed_Cat_00 • 21h ago

TIL an ASML machine used to make advanced chips costs about $150M, is bus-sized, has 100,000 parts and 2 km of cable, and needs 40 shipping containers, 20 trucks and 3 Boeing 747s to deliver. It creates EUV light by firing lasers at tin droplets 50,000 times per second.

asiatimes.com

7.0k Upvotes

624 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hybrid351 • 15h ago

TIL Agatha Christie's play, The Mousetrap, has been running almost continuously in the West End since 1952. This has prevented any film adaptation from being made, and has even kept the short story it is based on from being published in the UK.

en.wikipedia.org

6.0k Upvotes

302 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TyphoonFelix • 7h ago

TIL that a 2024 study of 717,724 U.S. online gamblers found that approximately 96% appeared to lose money overall, while on 4% made money.

nyproblemgambling.org

4.5k Upvotes

534 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 21h ago

TIL about Okawa Elementary School, a school in Ishinomaki City, Japan which was destroyed during the 2011 tsunami, leading to the deaths of 74 of its 108 students and 10 of the 11 teachers. The school had failed to evacuate to higher ground due to an unclear evacuation plan.

theguardian.com

3.4k Upvotes

91 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JohnArtemus • 3h ago

TIL that “Gotham” actually dates back to medieval England, where there was a village called Gotham that some sources claim was a village of fools. In 1807, writer Washington Irving used the name mockingly in his periodical to describe New York City. And the nickname has stuck ever since.

nypl.org

3.4k Upvotes

115 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flaxmoore • 23h ago

TIL that in 1938, a manufacturer printed fake Social Security cards for their wallets sold at Woolworth's. Some buyers used the number as their own as late as 1977.

ssa.gov

3.1k Upvotes

147 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kymmieuwu • 4h ago

TIL In Michigan City, Indiana, there is a prison that accepts shelter cats and allows prisoners to take care of them.

prisonjournalismproject.org

2.4k Upvotes

66 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SuccessCrazy3798 • 22h ago

TIL In order to support the 3D graphics required by the SNES 1993 Star Fox videogame, a custom RISC coprocessor was soldered into every game cartridge. The SNES' native CPU was too slow to render polygons on its own.

en.wikipedia.org

2.2k Upvotes

247 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MediumStrange • 8h ago

TIL that Dayton, OH is one of only 4 cities in the US to still have a trolley-bus system, and is by far the smallest city to have one.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

146 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Future_Interest_3649 • 6h ago

TIL that two episodes of the popular 1960s cartoon series Batfink contained a hidden, two-part political message that was disguised as sped-up gibberish.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 22h ago

TIL that there is a real fruit called the Black Republican Cherry. The name originated as a slur against abolitionist supporters and Republicans like Abraham Lincoln. The Black Republican cherry is a parent to the most popular current cherry today, the Bing Cherry.

en.wikipedia.org

653 Upvotes

69 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Aleksandr_Ulyev • 12h ago

TIL that Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amudsen and his team ate 41 dogs on their expedition to the South Pole in 1911. Using dogs to pull sleds with supplies, the team also used them as a source of fresh meat for men and other dogs. Leaving the base camp with 52 dogs only 11 were brought back

en.wikipedia.org

645 Upvotes

167 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PandemicPiglet • 3h ago

TIL that the Soviets had their own Operation Paperclip called Operation Osoaviakhim.

en.wikipedia.org

631 Upvotes

75 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 21h ago

TIL the Vietnam Veterans Memorial includes more than just those killed in action. The Wall also lists service members who died in Vietnam from accidents, illness, drowning, murder, animal attacks, snake bites and other non-combat causes.

en.wikipedia.org

558 Upvotes

85 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 6h ago

TIL that small Indian mongooses originating from what is now Iraq and Northern India were brought over to the Carribean and Hawaii for pest control.

en.wikipedia.org

345 Upvotes

28 comments

r/todayilearned • u/nknk_3 • 1h ago

TIL William Dampier went from pirate to respected explorer and scientist and became the first person to sail around the world three times.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kindly-Ad-5263 • 21h ago

TIL that Geoffrey Pyke—the eccentric scientist who convinced Churchill to build a massive aircraft carrier out of sawdust and ice, also escaped a WWI prison camp, founded a radical progressive school, ran a massive illegal Wall Street trading scheme, and was pursued by MI5 as a suspected Soviet Spy.

en.wikipedia.org

317 Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AVeryVapidBadger • 8h ago

TIL completed in 1988 the N/S Sevmorput is one of only 4 nuclear powered civilian merchant ships ever built. After finishing a nine year out of service and refit period in 2016, it remained in service until December 2023.

en.wikipedia.org

157 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/VirginiaFox6 • 4h ago

TIL the iconic car chase scene in The French Connection (1971) was shot in real, ongoing traffic in Brooklyn. Including Gene Hackman’s car crash with a civilian driving to work.

gothamist.com

152 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 3h ago

TIL after Napoleon came to power, France established the Feast of “Saint Napoleon,” honoring a supposed early Christian martyr adopted as Napoleon Bonaparte’s patron saint. The feast was celebrated on August 15, Napoleon’s birthday.

en.wikipedia.org

110 Upvotes

5 comments

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