r/todayilearned • u/super_common_name • 3h ago
TIL that 13 innocent men were exonerated because of lab technician Mary Jane Burton's habit, dating back to 1977, of scotch taping small samples of tested evidence to her lab records, even though doing so violated the official policy to destroy all evidence after it was tested.
r/todayilearned • u/kraven420 • 14h ago
TIL three Germans had been infected with rabies after an organ donation, as the donor was bitten by a dog and was undiagnosed
r/todayilearned • u/Popular-Good-5657 • 6h ago
TIL in 1956-1957, the chinese communist party (ccp) launched a campaign called "hundred flowers movement" where they encouraged chinese citizens to give their opinions about the communist party. it failed. then mao zedong, conducted an ideological crackdown to those who criticized the party.
r/todayilearned • u/TodAllen-99 • 13h ago
TIL that “Firehawks” a collection of three Australian bird species, are the only animals besides humans known to use fire to hunt. They will pick up burning sticks from fires and carry them in their beaks and talons before dropping it in unburnt vegetation setting the ground ablaze driving prey out.
r/todayilearned • u/DresdenPI • 9h ago
TIL Hitler's dad originally went by the name Alois Schicklgruber before changing his last name to 'Hitler' in 1876
r/todayilearned • u/Guardax • 9h ago
TIL Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the single largest expansion of protected lands in history which more than doubled the size of the National Parks System
r/todayilearned • u/ahm713 • 6h ago
TIL The Arabian Oryx became extinct in the wild by the early 1970s, but was saved in zoos and private reserves, and was reintroduced into the wild starting in 1980. In 2011, it was the first animal to revert to vulnerable status on the IUCN Red List after previously being listed as extinct
r/todayilearned • u/jamescookenotthatone • 12h ago
TIL Alf Clausen was the sole composer on The Simpsons from 1990 to 2017. Clausen would write the music for an episode during the week and record with his 35-piece orchestra on Fridays. One week Clausen had to write 57 musical cues.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/martinbishop • 7h ago
TIL Americans throw out over 400,000 smart phones per day, on average.
r/todayilearned • u/detached_obsession • 10h ago
TIL: There's a tree in South Africa called the Sunland Baobab that has a naturally formed hollow space inside large enough to contain a small pub, which can accommodate around 15 people
r/todayilearned • u/GotTheC0nch • 11h ago
TIL that, for legal reasons, in the years near 1900, New York saloons served inedible sandwiches with alcohol.
r/todayilearned • u/4m2r0s • 20h ago
TIL: One in four American cowboys were black
r/todayilearned • u/TrolleyMcTrollerson1 • 4h ago
TIL that seagulls not only eat other birds and animals, but are cannibals and often eat seagull chicks, even their own.
r/todayilearned • u/Smolesworthy • 19h ago
TIL Anne Frank wrote four dirty jokes in her diary, which she later papered over so they weren’t discovered by researchers until 2018.
cnn.comr/todayilearned • u/KamikazeChief • 3h ago
TIL that the outer HALOS of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky way are already touching each other. The Galactic collision is already in it's early phase
r/todayilearned • u/narok_kurai • 9h ago
TIL that when steam locomotives needed to refill their water tanks on long journeys, they would sometimes make use of water troughs built directly on the tracks. The engineers would lower a scoop into the trough as the train drove over it, refilling the tanks without needing to stop.
r/todayilearned • u/Yoshi2010 • 1d ago
TIL that Channel 5 was the only major UK television channel not to broadcast Queen Elizabeth II's funeral - they aired The Emoji Movie instead
r/todayilearned • u/Arjox65 • 5h ago
TIL The first written record of rabies is in the Mesopotamian Codex of Eshnunna (c. 1930 BC), which dictates that the owner of a dog showing symptoms of rabies should take preventive measures against bites. If another person were bitten by a rabid dog and later died, the owner was heavily fined.
r/todayilearned • u/Ok_Copy5217 • 6h ago
TIL Chinese Qing Emperors had to rise at 4am for his first audience. They had rigid schedules to write comments on local government reports for hours a day, and their only permitted amusements were shows, calligraphy, and painting
r/todayilearned • u/OutAtSea09 • 1h ago
TIL there has been one member of the US Congress that was born into royalty. Prince Jonah Kuhio was Hawaiian nobility before the territory was annexed and he served in the House of Reps from 1903-1922. Happy Prince Kuhio Day / 152nd Bday!
r/todayilearned • u/FatherWinter • 2h ago
TIL the New York Times, in 1944, Introduced Readers to an Exciting New Food: Pizza
r/todayilearned • u/Apiperofhades • 8h ago
TIL though the poem is frequently seen as a grand expression of individualism, the poem The Road Not Taken was written ironically, a reference to his friend Edward Thomas who had issues choosing a path on walks with him and often regretted his decisions.
r/todayilearned • u/The_AFL_Yank • 4h ago
TIL that Sony tried to change their logo in 1981 through Crowdsourcing. It didn’t work at all
r/todayilearned • u/Ok_Copy5217 • 20h ago
TIL Early Superman comics taught kids how to achieve super-strength through exercises in lifting armchairs, getting a super-grip, and achieving super-vision by glancing at distant and near objects repeatedly
r/todayilearned • u/SvanteArrheniusAMA • 1d ago