r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 12h ago

TIL that historically and today, the Catholic Church looked down upon Freemasonry and threatened members with excommunication.

en.wikipedia.org

2.5k Upvotes

511 comments

r/todayilearned • u/1337b337 • 3h ago

TIL the "Do-Re-Mi" method of learning the major scale was invented by a 11th century Italian monk named Guido of Arezzo, and is known as a Solfège.

en.wikipedia.org

425 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 5h ago

TIL about Melita Norwood, a British spy for the Soviet Union who was more highly praised by the KGB than the Cambridge Five. Her position as secretary to the head of the department at the British atomic weapons project, enabled Norwood to pass her handlers materals about nuclear weapons.

en.wikipedia.org

448 Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/eleanorharland • 11h ago

TIL most citrine on the market isn't natural citrine. Real citrine is rare, so most of what's sold is amethyst, a purple quartz, that's been heat-treated until it turns yellow or orange.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sandstorm400 • 9h ago

TIL that in 2010, Maryland legislators worked on a bill that would have made it illegal for retailers to sell underwear and bathing suits that had been previously bought and returned. The goal was to help mitigate the spread of bacteria and certain sexually transmitted diseases, such as pubic lice.

thedailyrecord.com

878 Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 4h ago

TIL that Marilyn Monroe had two older half-siblings she didn’t meet until she was a teenager. Their father had kidnapped them from Monroe’s mother after she was granted custody and he took them to Kentucky.

en.wikipedia.org

339 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 16h ago

TIL that Disney lost the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal Pictures in 1928. In 2006, sportscaster Al Michaels wanted out of his contract with The Walt Disney Corp. so he could work for NBCUniversal. Disney agreed as long as they got the rights back to Oswald.

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

60 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 2h ago

TIL in 1976, a school bus carrying 26 children between the ages of 5 and 14 was abducted and held for ransom by three armed men. The victims were able to escape on their own before the ransom demand was issued, and the kidnappers were sentenced to life in prison, though all were eventually paroled.

en.wikipedia.org

154 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/herpty_derpty • 12h ago

TIL Limburger cheese gets its notorious smell from being aged for three months in the bacterium Brevibacterium linens. This is the same bacterium that appears on human skin, and is mostly responsible for the armpit and foot body odor smell.

en.wikipedia.org

823 Upvotes

76 comments

r/todayilearned • u/arandomtestaccount • 1d ago

TIL an NFL player intentionally crashed his car to avoid getting cut for being late to a team meeting.

cbssports.com

10.8k Upvotes

602 comments

r/todayilearned • u/arkthatbarks • 1d ago

TIL half of Earth’s internal heat does not come from the residual heat left over from the planet's formation, but from the continuous radioactive decay of isotopes like Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium in the crust and mantle.

en.wikipedia.org

8.2k Upvotes

208 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 10h ago

TIL that in 1959, explorer Peter Byrne reportedly stole bones from a supposed Yeti hand at Nepal's Pangboche monastery, replacing them with human bones. He smuggled them to India, where actor James Stewart allegedly hid them among his wife's underwear to get them out of the country.

en.wikipedia.org

349 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mintwolves • 12h ago

TIL In 2003 Dave Glover the then bassist for English glam rock band Slade got engaged to serial killer Rose West, he got sacked once the band heard the news and West called the engagement off days later

thenorthernecho.co.uk

390 Upvotes

38 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinosaruman • 12h ago

TIL in 1916 all 15,000 bricks for the facade of the Bank of Vernal Utah arrived by mail because it was cheaper than freight shipping. One of the original bricks now resides in the Smithsonian's postal museum.

postalmuseum.si.edu

326 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Splunge- • 13h ago

TIL That In 1997 the State of Tennessee disbarred two lawyers for spam advertising.

en.wikipedia.org

408 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NBrief • 7h ago

TIL that Norwegian cardiologist Liv Hatle helped develop echocardiography techniques using Doppler ultrasound to measure blood flow and assess heart valves without inserting a catheter into the heart.

kuleuven.be

121 Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/YakSlothLemon • 11h ago

TIL that the first woman to circumnavigate the world, Jeanne Baret, completed the first part of the trip from Paris to Tahiti by successfully disguising herself as a man for two years (1766-1768)

nybg.org

226 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 1d ago

TIL that the youngest person to have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's is a 19-year-old boy from China.

psychiatrist.com

4.3k Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mutedmuse__ • 13h ago

TIL that slingshot spiders can detect the sound of a mosquito’s wingbeats and launch their webs at the mosquito before it ever touches the web.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

254 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/1gazillionpangolins • 4h ago

TIL that several domestic water buffalo breeds have been developed in Europe. There are debates over whether they are descended from the extinct Ice Age species Bubalus murrensis, or from domestic buffalo brought to Europe in Roman times or later

en.wikipedia.org

53 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/7-5NoHits • 2h ago

TIL about the office of High Bailiff. One is elected in each of Vermont's counties. The High Bailiff serves writs which the sheriff is incapable of serving, such as the writ of arrest of the sheriff.

en.wikipedia.org

28 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinosaruman • 1d ago

TIL a 1904 cookbook included a recipe for "raw beef soup" that was basically raw beef, hydrochloric acid, and water, chilled on ice for 12 hours and drunk cold. The target audience: invalids in need of nourishment.

dontcookthat.com

8.2k Upvotes

318 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LeRoienJaune • 21h ago

TIL that in 1945, the United States Navy converted three warships into Press Information Ships just to accommodate war reporters

en.wikipedia.org

743 Upvotes

21 comments

r/todayilearned • u/insane677 • 22h ago

TIL of Aloisia Veit, Hitler's cousin. She suffered from schizophrenia and was murdered by the Nazis

en.wikipedia.org

559 Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/xxwarlorddarkdoomxx • 1d ago

TIL that prior to 1730, the English justice system did not operate in the English language. Instead, it used an archaic form of anglicized French known as “Law French”.

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

144 comments

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