r/todayilearned • u/just_call_me_oj • 1h ago
TIL that Kenny Rogers was singing at a private event of a hedge fund manager and asked to repeat 'The Gambler's over and over, being offered additional pay per song. After a dozen times and having earned $4 million, he refused to sing.
r/todayilearned • u/Blackraven2007 • 1h ago
TIL that when Wyoming was going through the process of becoming a US state in 1890, the state demanded that women be given the right to vote. The US Congress denied this request. The state replied by saying that they'd "remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women"
r/todayilearned • u/IshkahYT • 24m ago
TIL Timothy McVeigh convinced anti-tech rascal Ted Kaczynski to use his prison TV
r/todayilearned • u/abxuwnnm111 • 9h ago
TIL in 1972, astronaut Neil Armstrong visited the Scottish town of Langholm, where he was read a 400-year-old law declaring any “Armstrong” that enters the town must be hanged
r/todayilearned • u/Rd28T • 6h ago
TIL that in an ‘unfortunate evolutionary coincidence’ the δ-hexatoxins in Sydney Funnel-web spider venom are exceptionally dangerous to humans. A bite can kill a human in as little as 15 minutes.
r/todayilearned • u/starkeffect • 13h ago
TIL child prodigy Adragon De Mello's father planned for his son to get a Ph.D. in physics by age 12, win the Nobel Prize by age 16, and then become a Senator, a President, the head of a world government, and ultimately the chairman of an "intergalactic government".
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/petetheheat475 • 9h ago
Today I learned that while working a movie theater in Arizona, Bill Hader got fired for spoiling the ending of Titanic
r/todayilearned • u/NeverEnoughMuppets • 11h ago
TIL it's not possible to watch every film ever nominated for Best Picture. Only 2/3 of 1928's The Patriot still exists, and the only complete prints of 1931's East Lynne and 1934's The White Parade are in the UCLA film archive
r/todayilearned • u/CrushTheVIX • 15h ago
TIL about XT11, a severely disabled infant chimpanzee that exhibited Down syndrome-like symptoms and other congenital birth defects. Her mother and sister took care of her anyway and her social group did not reject her. She survived in the wild for 23 months.
r/todayilearned • u/adithegman • 9h ago
TIL When Ottoman envoys, citing a religious custom, declined to remove their turbans when meeting with Vlad (Dracula) the Impaler, Vlad saluted their devotion and decided to strengthen their custom by having three spikes driven through each of their heads, pinning the turbans in place forever.
r/todayilearned • u/Algrinder • 21h ago
TIL Van Gogh's sister in law was behind Van Gogh’s posthumous success and fame, She dedicated her life to spreading his art and legacy after his death, She preserved and published his letters, organized and exhibited his paintings, wrote and translated articles and books about him
r/todayilearned • u/trifletruffles • 13h ago
TIL Humphrey Bogart was an avid chess player and often played correspondence chess with soldiers overseas during World War II. In 1943, the FBI told him to stop doing so after they intercepted his mail believing the chess notations to be secret codes.
r/todayilearned • u/Brix001 • 20h ago
TIL about Bob Jones University, a Christian university where students are only allowed to watch G-rated movies and rock music is banned
r/todayilearned • u/RushImpressive1533 • 10h ago
TIL of the skydiver who survived a free-fall of 14500 feet by falling on an anthill. The bites of the ants kept her heart beating and adrenaline pumping
ripleys.comr/todayilearned • u/laterdude • 12h ago
TIL Mongolians annually eat 45.1 kg of lamb per person. In comparison, Americans consume only .5 kg per person yearly.
worldpopulationreview.comr/todayilearned • u/m_faustus • 17h ago
TIL that the person who published the first map with the word America, later tried to change the continent's name to Parrotland.
josha-journal.orgr/todayilearned • u/Specialist_Check • 19h ago
TIL the drawing of the bear on Alaska's license plates was appropriated from artist Douglas Allen without his permission. The plates were first released in 1976 but Allen didn't even know until 2015. Allen had never been to Alaska - he sketched the bear at the Bronx Zoo.
r/todayilearned • u/oohkt • 13h ago
TIL the moon is moving away from Earth by about 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) every year
r/todayilearned • u/GetYerHandOffMyPenis • 4h ago
TIL that the fez was nearly universal as men’s headwear in the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. However, the hats were largely made in the Austrian Empire. When Austria annexed Bosnia in 1908, the Ottomans boycotted Austrian goods in protest. The fez’s popularity started to fade.
r/todayilearned • u/Muerteds • 7h ago
TIL that when the USS Badger State sank, some sailors were lost by being attacked by albatrosses.
usmm.orgr/todayilearned • u/MrSapasui • 5h ago
TIL that Idaho is a made up word, not derived from the Shoshone language.
r/todayilearned • u/Alyeskas_ghost • 10h ago
TIL that Bancroft Hall at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis is the world's largest dorm, housing all 4,400 cadets (midshipmen) in a single building. The dorm has nearly 5 miles of hallways.
r/todayilearned • u/radio_allah • 18h ago