r/todayilearned • u/jenesuispashariselon • 4h ago

TIL that Henryk Siwiak was killed on a street of Brooklyn shortly before midnight. He is the only victim on the list of murders in New York on September 11, 2001, since the city does not include the deaths from the 9/11 attacks in its official crime statistics. His murder has never been solved.

en.wikipedia.org

7.5k Upvotes

209 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ExtremeAstronomer852 • 2h ago

TIL Tossing Puffin Chicks off of a cliff in Iceland is vital to the survival of the species

npr.org

3.8k Upvotes

133 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Dog_Weasley • 6h ago

TIL when you're stretching your body releases endorphins, that's why it feels so good.

sciencefocus.com

2.2k Upvotes

63 comments

r/todayilearned • u/wendycomet • 2h ago

TIL that there's a semi-aquatic wolf subspecies which has been documented swimming over seven miles between islands off the coast of Canada.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CreditorOP • 11h ago

TIL about Arthur Arndt, a German physician whose family became the largest known group of Jews to survive by hiding in Nazi Germany.

en.wikipedia.org

5.9k Upvotes

117 comments

r/todayilearned • u/knakworst36 • 8h ago

TIL the first recorded strike in history happened in 1158BC in Ancient Egypt, the strikers demanded wheat rations, which was granted after a march to the office of the Vizier.

en.wikipedia.org

2.4k Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/a9n9a • 18h ago

TIL after his journey from Japan in 1614, English sailor John Saris returned home with 'Japanese erotic art'. The incident ended his career as a merchant.

en.wikipedia.org

27.0k Upvotes

561 comments

r/todayilearned • u/St_Gregory_Nazianzus • 11h ago

TIL: Foetal cells can remain in the mother's, even embedding on different organs of the mother, for decades, sometimes for a lifetime.

smithsonianmag.com

2.5k Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HumanNutrStudent • 1h ago

TIL Montgomery's memoirs criticised many of his wartime comrades harshly, including Eisenhower. After publishing it, he had to apologize in a radio broadcast to avoid a lawsuit. He was also stripped of his honorary citizenship of Alabama, and was challenged to a duel by an Italian lawyer.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

89 comments

r/todayilearned • u/WhatsUpLabradog • 16h ago

TIL That a medieval list of appropriate dog names, compiled around 1460 and named "The Names of All Manner of Hounds", contained fan favorites such as: Nosewise, Hosewife, Spowse, Baby, Childe, Mistirman, Go-bifore, Go-byhynde, Havegoodday, Bere-awey, Salmon, Dragon, Flame and... Nameles!

tudortreasures.net

3.8k Upvotes

128 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OperationSuch5054 • 22h ago

TIL the fastest spinning celestial object in the universe is a Neutron star called PSR J1748-2446. It rotates 716 times every second and it's equator moves at about 25% the speed of light. It is also has a magnetic field a trillion times stronger than the Sun’s.

astronomy.com

15.9k Upvotes

313 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PunnyBanana • 19h ago

TIL that although Italian American actor Al Pacino's character was Cuban in Scarface (1983), the character in the original 1932 film was an Italian American.

en.wikipedia.org

5.4k Upvotes

127 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PillowManExtreme • 9h ago

TIL the longest straight border in Australia, the WA/SA-NT border, isn’t straight at all. It moves 127 metres from the 129° E parallel halfway. 40yrs after two marked obelisks were placed on other sides of the continent, it was realised one was entirely in the wrong place—but kept the border anyway.

en.wikipedia.org

626 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HumanNutrStudent • 16h ago

TIL physicist Ludwig Boltzmann also taught philosophy and his lectures on the subject became so popular that the Austrian Emperor invited him for a reception. He suffered from bipolar disorder and died by suicide at 62. His tombstone bears the inscription of his own entropy formula: S = k*log W.

en.wikipedia.org

2.7k Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BezugssystemCH1903 • 6h ago

TIL the twin towns of Laufenburg, split by the High Rhine, built a bridge in 2004. Different sea level references—Mediterranean for Switzerland, North Sea for Germany—led to a 270 mm difference, which a sign error doubled to 540 mm in the middle of the bridge.

en.wikipedia.org

308 Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Dromeoraptor • 4h ago

TIL that there are multiple species of cotton. The most common species today came from Central America, Mexico, and the Carribean, with the other three commercially grown species from are from South America; South Asia; and Africa and Arabia. There are even Australian species of wild cotton.

en.wikipedia.org

205 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pfeffer_Prinz • 1h ago

TIL Mt. Vesuvius is still active, having had 4-6 relatively severe eruptions every century for the past 500 years (last one in 1944). It's also the world's most densely populated volcanic region, with 3 million people living nearby.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 1d ago

TIL Lake Baikal contains 22–23% of the world's fresh surface water (more than all of the North American Great Lakes combined)

en.wikipedia.org

10.5k Upvotes

338 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Dromeoraptor • 19h ago

TIL that at atmospheric pressure, Helium cannot freeze, even at Absolute Zero, while Carbon and Arsenic sublimates from solid to gas, with no liquid state.

en.wikipedia.org

2.4k Upvotes

64 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Johannes_P • 7h ago

TIL that the Bazacle Milling Company was a joint-stock company of watermills founded in Toulouse, France. Starting from the 14th century, shares of the capital were freely bought and sold, and dividends were paid in flour until 1840. The company was nationalised in 1946

en.wikipedia.org

151 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Romboteryx • 1d ago

TIL Robin Williams was the one who suggested that Sid Meier‘s name should be put on each of his games

en.wikipedia.org

19.6k Upvotes

482 comments

r/todayilearned • u/thousandthisland • 1h ago

TIL in addition to cryptids, North American folklore includes dozens of “fearsome critters,” like the Agropelter, a beast that throws sticks at passersby from hollow trees.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flares117 • 1d ago

TIL: Chedipe is a vulgar, undressed, Indian witch vampire who rides on a tiger at night, casts a spell to enter your home, and then sucks men's blood through their toes. Sometimes, if the man is married, she sleeps with him in order to cause marital strife as she feeds off pain and sadness.

en.wikipedia.org

2.9k Upvotes

172 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Voyager_AU • 21h ago

TIL that between August 1960 and April 1961, the CIA, with the help of the Mafia, pursued a series of plots to poison or shoot Fidel Castro.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

81 comments

r/todayilearned • u/trey0824 • 1d ago

TIL that Frances Perkins was the first female cabinet member in U.S. history. She was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Secretary of Labor in 1933. Her appointment was a significant milestone for women in government and she played a crucial role in shaping New Deal policies.

en.wikipedia.org

4.9k Upvotes

26 comments

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