r/todayilearned • u/romansapprentice • 6h ago
TIL that Steve Jobs is buried in an unmarked grave
9.0k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/IanMazgelis • 8h ago
TIL that an American POW in World War 2 was questioned about US atomic bombs after the bombing of Hiroshima. He told them he didn't know anything about that, but when they threatened to kill them, he "revealed" they had hundreds and that Tokyo and Kyoto were next.
en.wikipedia.org16.5k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ahumadero • 13h ago
TIL that in 2016 a rat broke into an ATM and ate $19,000 worth of cash
20.1k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Unadorned_Larva • 9h ago
TIL that six doctors devised an experiment where they each swallow a Lego head as a means to determine the typical transit time of a commonly swallowed object. They then presented their findings with a 'Found and Retrieved Time' aka 'FART' score. The FART score averaged 1.71 days
onlinelibrary.wiley.com5.5k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Khaleeasi24 • 8h ago
TIL Ernest Hemingway had a transgender daughter. Gloria Hemingway (born Gregory Hancock Hemingway) was an American physician and writer. Although she lived most of her life publicly as a man, she struggled with her gender identity from a young age, and in her sixties underwent surgery to transition
3.4k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/UralIveGotTonight • 2h ago
TIL that the legs of the 630 foot 192 m) Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO had to be built with a 1/64” (0.4 mm) tolerance so that they would meet at the top. Several filmmakers documented the entire construction in hope that the legs wouldn’t meet.
640 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/CatPotatey • 6h ago
TIL that in 1888, a woman named Bertha Benz became the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance when she took her husband's experimental three-wheeled Benz Patent-Motorwagen on a 65-mile journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim in Germany.
900 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/CrashLaForge • 4h ago
TIL Sigurd the Mighty, the Second Earl of Orkney who reigned between 875–892, was killed by by an infected wound after he strapped the decapitated head of Máel Brigte the Bucktoothed to his horse. The bouncing head and jaw chewed into Sigurd's leg on his victorious ride home from their fight.
533 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/estpenis • 3h ago
TIL Orson Welles was not drunk during the infamous Paul Masson shoot, he was under the effects of a sleeping pill. After napping for a few hours, Welles was able to complete the commercial within an hour, and the director said he was a delight to work with.
362 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/triviafrenzy • 2h ago
TIL after English King James II converted to Catholicism he was forced into exile in 1688 and his descendants were barred from royal succession. Today there is an art historian in Germany who would be King of England (instead of King Charles III) if James had stayed in the Church of England.
275 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Firm_Abies_725 • 1d ago
TIL Hitler was a huge supporter of Henry Ford for many reasons including Ford’s staunch anti semitism.
24.3k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/happy_bluebird • 1d ago
TIL the image of a ninja dressed all in black comes from the convention of depicting ninjas as wearing the costume of stagehands in Japanese kabuki theater
5.5k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/jamescookenotthatone • 11h ago
TIL Between 2011 and 2020 the second most common cause of death in aviation crashes was suicide by pilot. A majority of these cases were small planes only occupied by the pilot.
496 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TypicalDumbRedditGuy • 21h ago
TIL microwaving liquids creates an unusual heat convection effect, which consistently makes the top of the liquid much hotter than the bottom
pubs.aip.org3.0k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Livebeam • 12h ago
TIL The average lifespan of an MLB baseball is five to seven pitches ⚾️
504 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/millennial-snowflake • 1d ago
Today I learned that beekeeping suits are white because bees have seemingly evolved an aggressive defensive response towards dark figures approaching their nest which white suits helps to counteract
35.9k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/VengefulMight • 17h ago
TIL that the inspiration behind Professor Snape in Harry Potter was a chemistry teacher John Nettleship. Nettleship at first was upset about this attribution, but later came to embrace it, even writing a book.
1.1k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/triviafrenzy • 22h ago
TIL The bloodiest day in U.S. Military History was June 6, 1944 with 2,500 deaths. (D-day). The bloodiest day for U.S. born soldiers was Sept. 17, 1862 with 3,675 deaths. (Antietam)
2.4k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/triviafrenzy • 21h ago
TIL prior to 2011, if a member of the British Royal Family married a Roman Catholic they were excluded from the Line of Succession.
2.0k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Broadway--Joe • 2h ago
TIL that Emperor Hirohito, the leader of Japan during WW2, was an avid marine biologist credited with describing dozens of new species of crabs, starfish, sea spiders and sea squirts.
nature.com55 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/griefofwant • 15h ago
TIL the man in Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech is Jim Edgerton, the sole dissenter to his town's plans to build a new school, as the old one had burned down
558 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/waitingforthesun92 • 5h ago
TIL Link Wray’s 1958 instrumental "Rumble" was banned in several US radio markets, because the term 'rumble' was a slang term for a gang fight, and it was feared that the piece's harsh sound glorified juvenile delinquency. The song is the only instrumental single ever banned from radio in the USA.
86 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/GardantoDeGxojo • 10h ago
TIL Batman creator Bob Kane originally designed the Batsuit as a red jumpsuit with bat wings and a small black domino mask that revealed Bruce Wayne's blonde hair. It was Bill Finger that designed the darker suit and cowl for the Caped Crusader.
230 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/CFSparta92 • 1d ago
TIL the only wedding ceremony of a president serving in the White House was Grover Cleveland in 1886. At 49, he married a 21-year-old woman he had previously been the legal guardian of, and John Philip Sousa provided the music.
14.6k Upvotes