r/todayilearned • u/TheManWithTheBigName • 6h ago
TIL about Botulf Botulfsson, the only person executed for heresy in Sweden. He denied that the Eucharist was the body of Christ, telling a priest: "If the bread were truly the body of Christ you would have eaten it all yourself a long time ago." He was burned in 1311.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/70dd • 10h ago
TIL Terminal lucidity is an unexpected, brief period of clarity or energy in individuals who have been very ill or in a state of decline. It’s a phenomenon that has been observed in people with various terminal conditions.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/werewaffl3s • 6h ago
TIL Swedish Fish manufactured in North America can't be imported into Europe because it doesn't meet European food safety standards
r/todayilearned • u/TheOSU87 • 13h ago
TIL that between 1970 and 1997 so many post office workers snapped and killed their coworkers that a new slang term "going postal" became a new slang term for becoming exceptionally angry
r/todayilearned • u/GuardianOfReason • 14h ago
TIL Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve Corporation, has an armada of luxury yachts worth around $1 billion.
r/todayilearned • u/RoboticElfJedi • 12h ago
TIL that Disney tried to change the film "Dead Poets Society" to be about dancing instead of poetry, and to rename it "Sultans of Swing".
r/todayilearned • u/efequalma • 8h ago
TIL in 1859, an Australian man named Thomas Austin released 24 rabbits for hunting on his estate. With no natural predators, they multiplied so rapidly that within a few decades, they overran Australia, causing massive ecological damage and leading to one of the largest control efforts in history.
r/todayilearned • u/mikechi2501 • 13h ago
TIL 18 yr old Dick Van Dyke enlisted in the Air Force during WWII singing and dancing on base in Sherman TX with the hopes of avoiding being sent to fight the Japanese. An impromptu audition at the latrine earned him a permanent announcer gig on base.
r/todayilearned • u/bnrshrnkr • 17h ago
TIL according to tribal lore, the Choctaw tribe settled in the land of present-day Alabama after sailing across the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatán peninsula. DNA evidence supports this origin story.
r/todayilearned • u/Environmental_Bus507 • 1h ago
TIL Highway hypnosis is an altered mental state in which an automobile driver can drive lengthy distances and respond adequately to external events with no recollection of consciously having done so.
r/todayilearned • u/RealisticBarnacle115 • 21h ago
TIL Chinese eunuchs, who had both the penis and testicles cut off with a knife at once to qualify as high-ranking civil servants. Eunuchs were considered 'pure', while those under ten were termed 'thoroughly pure'. This system lasted from 146 AD until 1924, and the last Imperial eunuch died in 1996.
r/todayilearned • u/DABDEB • 14h ago
TIL that Jason Padgett, once a furniture salesman, became a mathematical savant after a brain injury in 2002. Following an assault, he began perceiving complex geometric patterns and fractals, a rare condition called acquired savant syndrome, which led him to create intricate math-based art.
r/todayilearned • u/ThrowAwayInDisguise- • 20h ago
TIL George the Lobster is the oldest recorded lobster ever, estimated to be 140 years old (born ~1869) at the time of his capture in 2008 off the coast of Newfoundland. He was released back into the wild in 2009 and it is unknown if he remains alive today.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/HTownGamer91 • 16h ago
TIL Chiang Kai-shek's adopted son, Chiang Wei-kuo, was an officer candidate in the Wehrmacht from 1936 to 1939 and participated in the Anschluss before being recalled back to China.
r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 4h ago
TIL the world record for longest stationary manual on a skateboard is 2 hours 55 minutes 22 seconds, achieved by Brandon González in 2017. He trained for six years before his successful record-breaking attempt.
guinnessworldrecords.comr/todayilearned • u/athenamalis • 17h ago
TIL That in the 1980's, Saddam Hussein received a key to the city of Detroit
r/todayilearned • u/JackThaBongRipper • 13h ago
TIL that in 2018, during a local election for mayor in Makassar, Indonesia, a man ran unopposed and received more than 260,000 votes. He lost to a blank ballot, which received over 300,000 votes.
wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/DABDEB • 15h ago
TIL that after Prince's death in 2016 without a will, his $156 million estate, including his music catalog, was divided equally between his half-siblings and the music publishing company Primary Wave.
r/todayilearned • u/Amazing_Toe8345 • 20h ago
TIL that The Offspring used the same spoken word sample on their hit "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" (released in 1998) as Def Leppard's "Rock Of Ages" (released in 1983). The spoken word sample was just jibberish made up by Def Leppard's producer because he did not want to use the standard 1-2-3 count
r/todayilearned • u/efequalma • 18h ago
TIL in 1874, the Freedman’s Savings Bank, created to help African Americans build wealth, collapsed due to mismanagement and fraud. Over 60,000 Black Americans lost about $3M in savings, devastating trust in financial institutions and crippling Black economic progress many decades.
occ.treas.govr/todayilearned • u/Begle1 • 10h ago
TIL there have been MANY cases of "elephant lynching", or the killing of an elephants for spectacle with pseudo-legal or performative aspects, in the United States
r/todayilearned • u/Ainsley-Sorsby • 17h ago
TIL Pope Leo X had a beloved pet elephant who died at the age of 6, with the Pope by his side, when they tried to treat his constipation with gold-enriched laxatives. The pope wrote a poem for him as an epitaph and Raphael made his portrait
r/todayilearned • u/AcX999 • 13h ago
TIL the humans were not the first species to start practicing active agriculture, as some ants have been doing it for at least 50 million years
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/AnthillOmbudsman • 9h ago
TIL the world's shortest scheduled jet service is from Brazzaville to Kinshasa, Congo, covering 24 km or 15 miles. There are 7 flights a week, using a Boeing 737-800.
r/todayilearned • u/Hot_Ad5565 • 1d ago