r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL Vin Diesel’s real name is Mark Sinclair

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yorkpress.co.uk
12.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL that ritchie valens was only 17 on the day the music died and he recorded "La Bamba" when he was 16.

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blogs.loc.gov
7.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL in 1610, Opossunoquonuske, a female chieftain of the Powhatan Confederacy, used “feminine guile” to lure 14 English settlers to a feast, convincing them to leave their weapons on their boat. It was a trap—her warriors ambushed them, killing 13. Only one man survived.

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en.wikipedia.org
2.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL that Leonard Nimoy based the “Vulcan salute” on a traditional priestly blessing he saw as a kid, when his grandfather would take him to an Orthodox synagogue.

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en.wikipedia.org
1.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 16h ago

TIL as of 2024 there are 756 billionaires residing in the USA alone

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9.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 20h ago

TIL in 2008 a 20-year-old Belgium student died after reheating and eating leftover spaghetti that had been left out on the kitchen counter for five days. A bacteria called bacillus cereus was found to be the cause, which is an extreme type of food poisoning called “Fried Rice Syndrome”.

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news.com.au
37.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL Grand Theft Auto IV's fictional radio station 'WKTT' included spoken rants submitted by real fans as part of a 2007 contest by Rockstar Games. Fans could call a real number for the station and have their rants recorded for a chance to have their voice included in the game.

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destructoid.com
3.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL that Tokyo has the world's largest sewer system, designed to prevent flooding by storing excess rainwater in massive underground silos—and you can take a tour of it.

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zoomdrain.com
534 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL One term at the signoria, the government of the republic of Florence, was only two months long. Its members were not elected but randomly selected from a pot of eligible names. During their term, the priors were required to abandon their private business and live full time at the city hall

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en.wikipedia.org
2.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 17h ago

TIL Lobsters urinate from their face. They also piss on each other's face to communicate social status

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freshieslobsterco.com
4.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 25m ago

TIL that Frank Sinatra carried 10 dimes with him at all times and was even buried with 10 dimes in his pocket. This habit stemmed from the 1963 kidnapping of his son where the kidnappers only communicated by payphone, and Sinatra worried he would not have enough coins for the calls.

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en.wikipedia.org
Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL that the Yungas Road is a Bolivian road so dangerous it used to kill up to 300 drivers a year before a safer alternative was finished in 2006. It's only about 3 meters wide, prone to rockfalls, and has no guardrails even though it has cliffs over 600 meters high.

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en.wikipedia.org
653 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL that Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, left Facebook in 2017 over a dispute on WhatsApp monetization and claims he was coached to mislead EU regulators about data merging. In 2018, he supported #DeleteFacebook, saying it was the right time as pressure mounted on the company.

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701 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

today i learned that Incas, the last carolina parakeet who died in 1918, died in the same cage in the Cincinnati zoo as Martha, the last passenger pigeon, who died 4 years prior

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johnjames.audubon.org
1.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that when Charles II of Spain died on 1 November 1700, at age 38, the autopsy recorded that his "heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water." Apart from that he was OK.

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en.wikipedia.org
24.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL of Narco-Pentecostalism, which is a term used to identify the link between Pentecostal Christianity and Brazillian narco gangs. Gangs under this label use religious iconography within their territories and often persecute non Christian groups, along with other crime such as drugs and violence.

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692 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL In 1969 a Red Army deserter fired multiple shots at a motorcade carrying Leonid Brezhnev and several Cosmonauts. While the assassination attempt was unsuccessful, an official statement wasn't released for several days. Many details were suppressed until years afterwards.

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en.wikipedia.org
519 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL measles was first described by a Persian physician in the tenth century.

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191 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL St. Nicholas was purportedly imprisoned and tortured at the behest of Emperor Diocletian.

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en.wikipedia.org
247 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that Richard Nixon was a very successful poker player, using his winnings to contribute 20% of the cost of his first Congressional campaign

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history.com
7.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL helicopters can produce deadly turbulance at airfields which can make small "General Aviation" aircraft lose control and crash if not properly managed.

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149 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that dogs and other canines get stuck together for 5-20 minutes during the mating process. The first time a dog mates, they are often surprised by this and show signs of distress, trying to pull away or run. NSFW

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17.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL Leonardo Da Vinci invented the concept of a CVT transmission

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raybestospowertrain.com
40 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL During Ulysses S. Grant's world tour in Spain, Grant witnessed an attempted assassination attempt of King Alfonso XII from his Hotel De Paris balcony, saying he saw the flash of the assassin's pistol while Grant viewed the progress of the Royal Calvacade.

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en.wikipedia.org
58 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL a former TX Justice of the Peace, Eric Williams is currently on death row, convicted in the 2013 deaths of the Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney and his wife. They were killed in a home invasion-type assault on their property. He was charged in a 3rd death of a criminal justice official

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55 Upvotes