r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 18h ago

TIL Highway hypnosis, also known as white line fever, is an altered mental state in which an automobile driver can drive safely and correctly over long distances without consciously remembering having done so.

en.wikipedia.org

22.0k Upvotes

1.2k comments

r/todayilearned • u/247Twunk • 4h ago

TIL only three people in this world can travel anywhere, legally without a passport: King Charles III, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.

firstpost.com

12.4k Upvotes

732 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sapphire-Crystal • 22h ago

TIL of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, a Gilded Age millionaire who died when the RMS Lusitania sank in 1915, after giving his own life vest to a young mother and her baby. He couldn't swim and he knew that there were no other lifeboats available at the time. He was 37. The woman & her child survived.

en.wikipedia.org

11.6k Upvotes

702 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Miner_Guyer • 23h ago

TIL that an American physicist predicted that horses will reach their top trotting speed in the year 2158, trotting 1 mile in 99 seconds.

en.wikipedia.org

11.1k Upvotes

489 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 14h ago

TIL that in Japanese folklore, Kuchisake-onna is a ghost woman whose mouth is slit from ear to ear. She asks people, “Am I pretty?” Say no, and she kills you. Say yes, and she reveals her mouth and asks again. Say yes a second time, and she may cut your mouth to match hers.

en.wikipedia.org

10.0k Upvotes

867 comments

r/todayilearned • u/haddock420 • 30m ago

TIL Adam DeVine was hit by a cement truck at age 11, breaking every bone in his legs. He spent two weeks in a coma, underwent 26 surgeries, and used a wheelchair during recovery. Today, he supports Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and regularly visits children in hospital.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

69 comments

r/todayilearned • u/No_Idea_Guy • 4h ago

TIL in 1937 a woman boarded an empty Paris Metro carriage and was found stabbed to death less than 90 seconds later at the next stop. No one else was seen enter or leave the carriage. The victim had been working as a spy. Neither the murderer nor the method of escape was ever discovered.

en.wikipedia.org

4.3k Upvotes

132 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RaccoonCityTacos • 9h ago

TIL that in 1941 the National Park Service established 16 "mental healing" camps in national parks for U.S. servicemen to use for rest and recovery before being redeployed to the war. By the end of WWII, 33 camps were set up, including those in Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.

nps.gov

3.8k Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BisonThunderclap • 20h ago

TIL Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature. It has 49 senators who serve 4 year terms with half of the legislature being up for election every 2 years.

en.wikipedia.org

3.3k Upvotes

235 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Dry-War-9326 • 1h ago

TIL that Earth had naturally occurring nuclear reactors 2 billion years ago. In what is now Gabon, uranium deposits sustained nuclear fission, and evidence suggests one reactor repeatedly switched itself on for about 30 minutes and off for 2 and a half hours

physics.aps.org

3.1k Upvotes

171 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 7h ago

TIL that a major fire occurred on the American aircraft carrier USS Oriskany when a seaman accidentally lit a parachute flare and in a panic threw it in a locker where hundreds of flares were stored. Later the Oriskany would be the first American warship to be converted into an artificial reef.

en.wikipedia.org

2.2k Upvotes

113 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MrMrSean • 19h ago

TIL Joseph Beyrle served in both the U.S and Soviet armies during WWII. Initially with the 101st Airborne, he was captured by the Germans after jumping into Normandy on D-Day. He escaped from an Eastern Front POW camp and joined the Red Army. His son later served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia.

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ok-Sherbert-6606 • 12h ago

TIL that many of Savannah, Georgia’s cobblestone streets are made from ship ballast stones, brought from ports across Europe and the American northeast and dumped along the riverfront

hmdb.org

2.0k Upvotes

60 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CraftyFoxeYT • 11h ago

TIL the Latin alphabet used by the Romans is derived from the Etruscan alphabet, which is derived from the Greek colony in Italy Cumae's Western Greek alphabet, which is derived from the Phoenician alphabet, which is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

193 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mintwolves • 3h ago

TIL In 2023 Tomas Lindberg of Melodic Death Metal band 'At The Gates' was diagnosed with Cancer and would require surgery to remove most of the roof of his mouth, he entered the studio and recorded all vocals for future album 'The Ghost of a Future Dead' in a SINGLE day ONE day before surgery.

blabbermouth.net

1.6k Upvotes

70 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mandywiles • 10h ago

TIL that Methuselah, a Great Basin bristlecone pine located in California, is over 4,800 years old, making it older than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

usda.gov

1.5k Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Aervanath • 3h ago

TIL that while we can't pinpoint the exact year 65 million years ago in which the Chicxulub asteroid impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, we do know it happened in the spring in the Northern Hemisphere

nature.com

1.4k Upvotes

92 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 3h ago

TIL in 1939, 1000’s of children were evacuated from London to the English countryside to escape Nazi bombing. Three girls stayed at the Oxford home of author C.S. Lewis and helped inspire his classic novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which children are evacuated to a country house.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

50 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Giff95 • 1h ago

TIL on January 30, 1989, Kenneth Noid, believing the Domino’s Pizza mascot mocked him, held an employee at gunpoint. After his arrest and a stay in a mental health facility, the Noid remained in use until 1995, when Kenneth died by suicide. The character has rarely appeared since.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

132 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 53m ago

TIL that when serial killer Ted Bundy was just 3 years old, his 15-year-old aunt awoke from a nap to find kitchen knives arranged around her bed, with young Bundy standing beside her, smiling.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

135 comments

r/todayilearned • u/fan_tas_tic • 14h ago

TIL Matmata, Tunisia's underground "troglodyte" structures stay 64–77°F (18–25°C) year-round without AC or heating, even when summer exceeds 104°F (40°C). Thick earth insulates against desert heat and cold nights.

atlasobscura.com

646 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/c00lture • 9h ago

TIL that in 1990, the creators of a comedy series formed the “Polish Beer-Lovers' Party” as a joke to promote beer drinking over vodka. It ended up winning 16 seats in Parliament during the 1991 elections.

en.wikipedia.org

626 Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mahrogamers • 16h ago

TIL that Claude Shannon, whose work helped lay the foundations of the digital age, built a calculator named THROBAC (THrifty ROman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer) that did all of its arithmetic entirely in Roman numerals, both externally and internally

mitmuseum.mit.edu

607 Upvotes

42 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 1h ago

TIL Monty Python's John Cleese’s family name was originally Cheese, but his father changed it from Cheese to Cleese to avoid being teased when he signed up to fight in World War I.

bbcamerica.com

• Upvotes

39 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Tometek • 5h ago

TIL that from 1544 to 1548, the conquistadors who conquered Peru fought a civil war against the Spanish Crown over laws restricting Indigenous labor. Led by Gonzalo Pizarro, they killed the Spanish viceroy, seized control of Peru, and some even proposed crowning Pizarro king of an independent Peru.

tandfonline.com

305 Upvotes

25 comments

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