r/todayilearned • u/JEBV • 1d ago

TIL a snowy owl once flew from the Artic to Honolulu, and was seen flying around the international airport. It would be shot the same day by wildlife services.

civilbeat.org

529 Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/slurpdwnawienperhaps • 1d ago

TIL the oldest person to receive their doctorate is attributed to Ingeborg Rapoport. She was 102 years old when she received her medical doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 201 5. She was denied a medical degree 70+ years earlier because her mother was of Jewish descent.

wikipedia.org

934 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/blankblank • 1d ago

TIL that the rate at which new words are added to languages has slowed in the digital era, and it's partly because the advent of automatic spell-checkers has given words recognized by these tools a "reproductive fitness" advantage, while non-standard spellings decline.

nature.com

2.7k Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/hot-java • 1d ago

TIL about the Great Stalactite Organ created over three years by Leland W. Sprinkle at the Luray Caverns in Virginia by finding and shaving certain stalactites to produce specific notes. Recordings were sold on vinyl and cassette and can be found online and through music streaming services.

en.wikipedia.org

113 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Super_Goomba64 • 1d ago

TIL that in the United Kingdoms Parliament, there is a box of snuff (smokeless tobacco) that's been around since the 1600s, it is free for government officials to use, but the last time it was used was 1989. It is still kept to this day

en.wikipedia.org

427 Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 1d ago

TIL Heard Island and McDonald Islands contain Australia's only two active volcanoes

en.wikipedia.org

200 Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chocolatestarfish33 • 2d ago

TIL there is a land dwelling crayfish native to Wisconsin

apps.dnr.wi.gov

90 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/T-Rex-Hunter • 2d ago

TIL, that the least common birthday is the 25th of December and that in fact of the top ten least common birthdays are all days that holidays land on.

zippia.com

4.1k Upvotes

347 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sanandrios • 2d ago

TIL the Eiffel Tοwer was a temporary gimmick for the 1889 World Fair that was never dismantled. Its sparkling lights were also supposed to be a gimmick to ring in New Year 2000, but have stayed on.

en.wikipedia.org

4.4k Upvotes

125 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milwambur • 2d ago

TIL that Eva Longaria spent 6 million dollars saving a film after her agent told her it was the right call. She now says its the best money she ever spent. That film? John Wick

variety.com

65.9k Upvotes

797 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Eastern_Ad_2338 • 2d ago

TIL that there was a short film created after "Oz" ended focusing on the dealings of two of the surviving prisoners

youtu.be

34 Upvotes

20 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ExtremeInsert • 2d ago

TIL that as a child star, Jackie Coogan earned up to $4m (equivalent to around $91m today) but by age 21, he found most of it had been spent by his mother and stepfather. He sued in 1938 and received only $126,000. This case resulted in the 1939 enactment of the California Child Actor's Bill.

dannydutch.com

8.6k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2d ago

TIL when Carrie Fisher told Harrison Ford she was going to publish her journals & reveal they had an affair (Ford was married) while filming Star Wars (1977), Ford raised his finger & said "Lawyer!" Fisher said he could read it beforehand & take anything out. She sent it to him but never heard back.

npr.org

45.4k Upvotes

1.6k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Cultural_Magician105 • 2d ago

TIL That in 2007 a 53 year old woman died from a stroke and four people recieved kidneys, lungs and liver transplants from her. All four of them developed breast cancer, with three of them dying from it. The donor had breast cancer that hadn't been found at the time of her death.

cnn.com

46.4k Upvotes

763 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Capital_Tailor_7348 • 2d ago

Til that Nicholas Trist the amassador sent to negotiate the end to the Mexican American war was fired from his post by president Polk. Trist responded by ignoring Polk’s order to return to the US and continued to negotiate the end of the war with Mexico.

wikipedia.org

781 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/InsertaGoodName • 2d ago

TIL that in Season of Glass, Yoko Ono’s first album after the murder of her husband John Lennon, the front cover features Lennon's bloodstained glasses which were worn on the day of his death.

en.wikipedia.org

773 Upvotes

102 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2d ago

TIL in 2010 Bill Murray & members of the Wu-Tang Clan were hanging out at SXSW when they entered the packed Shangri-La bar together, whereupon Murray spontaneously decided to hop over the bar & become a surprise temporary bartender who served generous tequila shots regardless of what patrons ordered

theguardian.com

5.1k Upvotes

264 comments

r/todayilearned • u/No-Community- • 2d ago

TIL that Elizabeth Taylor was deliberately late to her own funeral

cbsnews.com

6.8k Upvotes

59 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Spykryo • 2d ago

TIL that veteran astronaut John Young's heart rate when launching on top of the Saturn V was only 70 bpm, the normal resting heart rate; meanwhile, his rookie crewmate's heart rate was 144 bpm, more than double. Young later said his heart "was too old for it to go any faster".

spaceflightnow.com

2.8k Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/GeoJono • 2d ago

TIL that the last U.S. President who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican was Millard Fillmore, the final Whig Party President, who served in the executive office from July 1850 to March 1853.

buffaloah.com

1.4k Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Well_Is_It_Then • 2d ago

TIL ATMs have a timeout - wait too long to take your cash, and it pulls it back in

youtu.be

0 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/WifeOfSpock • 2d ago

TIL that almond milk has been consumed and used as an ingredient in food since medieval times.

secondshistory.com

1.1k Upvotes

67 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TriviaDuchess • 2d ago

TIL in only two seasons in Oakland, the American Basketball Association Oakland Oaks won 28% of their games the first year and 77% in their second, including the 1969 ABA Championship. The main difference was Rick Barry, who joined for one year after a salary dispute with the NBA’s Warriors.

en.wikipedia.org

56 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/rosstedfordkendall • 2d ago

TIL beaver dams saved a wetland in the Czech Republic. The government was planning to do the same thing, but the bureaucracy took too long. The dams saved $1.2 million.

en.wikipedia.org

5.2k Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AhmedMostafa16 • 2d ago

TIL that in 18th century England, people would pay to attend Bedlam, a private lunatic asylum, to watch the mentally ill as entertainment

retrospectjournal.com

3.7k Upvotes

270 comments

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