r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 8h ago
TIL that the oldest-known sandals in the world were found in the 1930s dating back to 10,000 years old in Fort Rock in Oregon.
mnch.uoregon.edu
292
Upvotes
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.
2.1k
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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.
652
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/dinozaurs • 3h ago
TIL that in 1985 the English band The Fall released a song titled "I Am Damo Suzuki," in homage to the singer Damo Suzuki from the band Can. The bassist for The Fall said that years later he met Suzuki at a club, who approached him by saying, "I am Damo Suzuki."
en.wikipedia.org
84
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 1d ago
TIL although the Dutch monarchy favors male heirs, King William III’s three sons all died before him. His daughter Wilhelmina inherited the throne in 1890, beginning 123 years of rule by three successive queens, each succeeded by a daughter, until Willem-Alexander became king in 2013.
4.6k
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r/todayilearned • u/FuckASchwarzenegger • 4h ago
PDF TIL Danish is unusually reluctant to respell foreign words: a Nordic study of newspapers from 2000 found that only 7% of modern loanwords were adapted to Danish spelling, compared with 17% in Swedish, 44% in Norwegian and 48% in Icelandic. Danish also had the highest proportion of English loanwords
helda.helsinki.fi
79
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/brondynasty • 1d ago
TIL about the ancient Roman practice of Damnatio Memoriae (condemnation of memory) whereby an unpopular or disgraced public figure from history is systematically erased as if they had never lived.
3.9k
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r/todayilearned • u/Fairytlly • 1d ago
TIL that the "zombie-ant" fungus (Ophiocordyceps) does not control ants by invading their brains. Instead, it leaves the brain completely intact while directly encircling and seizing control of their muscle fibers like a biological puppet.
19.8k
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r/todayilearned • u/FGGF • 1d ago
TIL that imitation crab in California rolls is often made from pollock, which is caught using trawl nets that catch and kill actual crabs, the very animal imitation crab is meant to mimic.
4.2k
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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
603
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 1d ago
TIL On average, a kidney transplant from a living donor lasts about 15 to 20 years, and a kidney from a deceased donor lasts 8 to 12 years.
14.7k
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r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 1d ago
TIL that Herman Melville earned only about $1,260 from Moby-Dick, less than he made from any of his five previous books. Decades later, his widow received just $81 in royalties from nearly 1,800 copies sold between 1892 and 1898.
3.9k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/conlanyoo • 10h ago
TIL that historian Shekhar Pathak led a decadal foot expedition called the "Askot-Arakot Abhiyan," walking over 1,150 kilometers across the length of the Himalayas every ten years (starting in 1974) to document the environmental and social changes in rural mountain villages.
153
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r/todayilearned • u/RiverMesa • 12h ago
TIL Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, used to be called Lourenço Marques until independence in 1976, and was originally going to be renamed Can Phumo, after a chief who lived in the area before the Portuguese arrived
200
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/delano1998 • 1d ago
TIL that in 1993, a failed Malaysian pop singer-turned-shaman named Mona Fandey murdered a politician during a fake "money-falling" ritual where she promised him invincibility. She then went on a luxury shopping spree and got a facelift before being executed.
1.7k
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r/todayilearned • u/Dazzling-Ad1894 • 1d ago
TIL that the proposed Beatles film of "Lord of the Rings" stopped at only one meeting. In 1968, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney convened with potential director Stanley Kubrick at his London office, but Kubrick persuaded the pair that the film would be unadaptable, and the project was dropped.
3.8k
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r/todayilearned • u/wandering_soles • 1d ago
TIL that Vinnie Ream was only 18 years old when she was commissioned to sculpt the statue of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln for the United States Capitol rotunda in 1866, making her the first woman and youngest artist to be commissioned for a statue by the U.S. government
4.8k
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r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 1d ago
TIL there was a myth about King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) that the film had different endings in different countries , with Godzilla winning in the Japanese version and Kong in the American. In reality, both cuts have the same ending, and Toho has repeatedly affirmed Kong as the ultimate winner.
4.0k
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r/todayilearned • u/leafpool2014 • 1d ago
TIL there were over 525 Million Votes in the 1964 Illinois House of Representative Election. Because the state failed to redistrict, every single seat was elected at-large due to a constitutional quirk in the Illinois Constitution, meaning each person could vote for all 177 candidates seperately
2.7k
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r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 1d ago
TIL On September 10th 2010, cargo containing lithium batteries caught fire on UPS Flight 6. The first officer managed to turn the plane back to Dubai INTL Airport, but the thick smoke caused the plane to overflew it and crash near a highway
666
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/MAClaymore • 1d ago
TIL that in the Middle Ages, champagne was most commonly called "Aӱ", after one of the wine-producing towns in the Champagne region
352
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r/todayilearned • u/PikesPique • 1d ago
TIL that a Christian broadcaster called Family Radio spent $100 million promoting a host's prediction that the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011, and that the world would end on Oct. 21. Some listeners spent their own money to spread the word, with one retiree spending $140,000 on advertising.
en.wikipedia.org
4.1k
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r/todayilearned • u/poo-rag • 1d ago
TIL the actor whose character died during the live fire exercise in Starship Troopers later married the actress who killed him (in the film)
4.3k
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r/todayilearned • u/Cantora • 1d ago
TIL that in 2007, scientists successfully created human-sheep chimeras by transplanting human stem cells into fetal sheep, allowing human blood cells to survive inside the animals for years.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
552
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ScienceTeacher1994 • 1d ago
Drop By, not Drop To TIL Jakarta, Indonesia, is now the world's most populous city, with a population of 42 million people. Dhaka, Bangladesh, with a current population of 36 million, is expected to surpass Jakarta by the mid century, while Tokyo is expect to drop to 2.7 million residents.
12.6k
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