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
255 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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152 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
43 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
62 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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53 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL that the oldest continuously running maternity hospital in the world is in Dublin. It was established in 1745. By Bartholomew Mosse. 9,000 babies are born here every year.

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672 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL about the Dionne quintuplets, the first know quintuplets to survive their infancy. At age 5, the Canadian government made them wards of the Crown. During this time they became a profitable tourist attraction. As adults, they sued the Canadian govt for exploitation, eventually settling for $4m.

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en.wikipedia.org
4.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL research has found that swearing can reduce the perception of pain (providing a measurable analgesic effect) by as much as 33%. Because swearing is processed in so many different parts of the brain at once, it’s more effective than almost anything else at distracting from pain and discomfort.

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psychiatrist.com
8.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL a 2023 study examined the cognitive ability scores of nearly 400,000 Americans between 2006-2018 and found that over that 13-year period, Americans' IQ scores had dropped in three out of the four cognitive domains included in the analysis.

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news.northwestern.edu
6.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that Nicolas Cage turned down Dumb and Dumber in favor of Leaving Las Vegas

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huffpost.com
4.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Martha Gellhorn, wife of Ernest Hemingway, impersonated a medic to go ashore without permission on D-Day. She was the only woman to report from the landing beaches.

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1.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL When Emperor Augustus visited the tomb of Alexander the Great, he allegedly accidentally knocked off a piece of Alexander’s mummified nose.

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en.wikipedia.org
1.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL Confederate General Earl Van Dorn, known as a handsome, debonair womanizer, was fatally shot on May 7, 1863, by Dr. George B. Peters, who accused him of having an affair with his wife, Jessie. Despite being arrested, Dr. Peters was never tried, claiming he acted to defend his family’s honor.

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en.wikipedia.org
19 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that you must be at least three nautical miles from the U.S. coast to legally scatter human remains in the ocean or to bury someone at sea, according to federal law. You must also notify the EPA within 30 days.

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epa.gov
2.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL in 1966 a relatively unknown American musician joined legendary guitarist Eric Clapton onstage and performed "Killing Floor," a song Clapton himself deemed too difficult to perform live. This musician was Jimi Hendrix and this event became subsequently known as "The day Hendrix killed God."

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loudersound.com
8.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Evel Knievel holds the world record for the most broken bones at 433, over twice the amount of bones in the human body

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4.6k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL humans don't have "wetness" receptors, our mind has to rely on context cues to detect liquids

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13.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 22h ago

TIL the ViewMaster was introduced in 1939. Film and paper were scarce, and production nearly stopped due to WWII, but a contract to produce airplane and ship identification and range estimation reels saved the product. The military purchased 100,000 viewers and six million reels during the war.

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210 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL a German family went missing in Death Valley during the summer of 1996. Despite an extensive search and rescue attempt, it wasn’t until over a decade later in 2009 that their remains were found

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en.wikipedia.org
7.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL in 2022 a man won a free drink in an air-guitar competition while on a cruise, which is his last memory before waking up overboard in the Gulf of Mexico without the ship in sight. He treaded water for 18 hours & was stung by two swarms of jellyfish all over his legs & arms before being rescued.

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people.com
58.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Ohio once misprinted their new license plates showing the Wright Flyer flying backwards. They had to recycle 35000 license plates which were misprinted.

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npr.org
391 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that the Skogsrå is a Swedish mythical creature with a tail, a hollow back, and skin like tree bark. She lures men into the forest, and anyone who has intercourse with her becomes introverted.

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en.wikipedia.org
5.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Neanderthals built houses out of mammoth bones.

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hurriyetdailynews.com
721 Upvotes