r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 6h ago

TIL in 1998 a man on Olympic Airways had an asthmatic reaction to cigarette smoke, so his wife asked 3 times that he be moved away from the smokers. At first, the flight attendant said there were no empty seats and later said she was too busy. The man eventually died & his widow was awarded $1.4m.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

25.0k Upvotes

692 comments

r/todayilearned • u/InmostJoy • 8h ago

TIL that, after learning what museums do, a five-year-old girl named Bethan donated her favourite rock to her local museum. Rather than just throw it out, the museum put Bethan's rock on display, it went viral online and went on to become their most famous object.

en.wikipedia.org

11.4k Upvotes

169 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Solid-Move-1411 • 4h ago

TIL Kaiser Wilhelm II was on vacation when WW1 started. Upon his return Kaiser was furious at Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg over ultimatum saying "How did it all happen?" He offered resignation as apology but Wilhelm refused to accept it stating "You've made this stew, now you're going to eat it!"

en.wikipedia.org

4.3k Upvotes

121 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Caboose127 • 3h ago

TIL that the naturopath and author of such books as "The Cure for All Cancers," "The Cure for all Diseases," and "The Prevention of all Cancers" died in 2009 from cancer

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

130 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 6h ago

TIL a high school football coach for Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas named Kevin Kelley employed an unorthodox strategy that included almost never punting & always attempting onside kicks when the score is within 21 points. His team won 7 state championships in 15 years including 4 in a row

sports.yahoo.com

5.1k Upvotes

252 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Nodebunny • 9h ago

TIL the term "Millennials" was invented in 1991 by two historians writing a book about American generational cycles; over a decade before most Millennials had even finished high school. They predicted Millennials would become "the next Greatest Generation"

en.wikipedia.org

7.7k Upvotes

1.2k comments

r/todayilearned • u/FullOfSound • 13h ago

TIL about perfidy, the deceptive tactic of feigning surrender or death with the intent to kill an enemy. It is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and considered a war crime.

en.wikipedia.org

11.9k Upvotes

633 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Advanced_Narwhal_949 • 3h ago

TIL that, despite smoking on an aircraft being illegal, commercial aircraft are still legally required to equip ashtrays near lavatories in case someone does smoke.

afar.com

1.2k Upvotes

100 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 2h ago

TIL national park ranger Margaret Anderson blocked a car heading to the Paradise Recreation stop at Mt. Rainier where there were numerous visitors. She was shot and killed by the driver but he fled on foot and did not go up to Paradise.

bja.ojp.gov

687 Upvotes

25 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Quantum_Key • 4h ago

TIL The only recorded collision between a car and a submarine happened in Sweden in 1961, when a driverless Volvo rolled downhill into a docked submarine.

en.wikipedia.org

653 Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/gorginhanson • 2h ago

TIL 8% of human DNA is made from viruses

theconversation.com

346 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Illogical_Blox • 11h ago

TIL of the telephone-pole beetle, which is the only living member of an otherwise extinct family. Normally they never mature to adulthood, as females are capable of asexual reproduction while in the larval form, which is part of why they have one of the most complex life cycles among all beetles.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Verbal-Gerbil • 12h ago

TIL Tipper Gore launched Parents Music Resource Center, the music ‘censorship’ group responsible for the ‘Parental Advisory Explicit Content’ label in response to the Prince song Darling Nikki, which doesn’t contain any swear words

edition.cnn.com

1.7k Upvotes

319 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 6h ago

TIL online clothing orders have a return rate of 32%, which dwarfs the return rates of other e-commerce sectors (e.g. just 7% in consumer electronics).

theconversation.com

588 Upvotes

107 comments

r/todayilearned • u/gabigorp • 1h ago

TIL the US built a colossal 60-foot radar cube in Alaska (the LRDR) packed with Japanese GaN tech. It’s designed to "discriminate" between actual nuclear warheads and decoys while they are coasting through space at hypersonic speeds.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OpenPsychology22 • 11h ago

TIL experiments by Benjamin Libet found that the brain begins preparing actions about 300 milliseconds before a person becomes consciously aware of deciding to act.

en.wikipedia.org

904 Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hrtzy • 2h ago

TIL Herodotus wrote his his Histories to be read aloud to an audience. This was the custom of his time.

en.wikipedia.org

152 Upvotes

41 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 48m ago

TIL When Jack Lemmon's first major film he was pressured to change his name to "Lennon" as it was feared, critics would use the name "Lemmon" in headlines mocking the film. Lemmon countered that if he did that, people might confuse his name with "Lenin" which would be an issue in 1950s America.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Next_Worth_3616 • 11h ago

TIL The Gospel of Wealth, an essay written by Andrew Carnegie, launched the modern philanthropic movement. He believed the best way of dealing with wealth inequality was for the rich to utilize their money in a thoughtful manner and not in a way that encourages "the slothful, drunken, & unworthy".

en.wikipedia.org

493 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/Illogical_Blox • 9h ago

TIL that viruses have significant prevalence and diversity among bats, yet they rarely cause bats to suffer from disease.

theconversation.com

337 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Nero2t2 • 6h ago

TIL When the French decided to dig up all the kings from Saint Denis in 1793, they found that the body of Henri IV was so well preserved that a someone took a piece of his moustache "as a memento". His head was reportedly moved and rediscovered multiple times since, last found in an attic in 2009

parisgoneby.com

166 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL there are over 33,000 Japanese companies with histories of 100 years or more. These long-standing firms are known as 'shinise'. They are governed by a management philosophy that prioritizes long-term continuity and generational succession over short-term profits.

en.wikipedia.org

11.5k Upvotes

332 comments

r/todayilearned • u/EstablishmentDue3616 • 1d ago

TIL that the pink color in Himalayan Pink Salt is mostly rust.

mpechicago.com

6.7k Upvotes

489 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Next_Worth_3616 • 1d ago

TIl that industrialist Andrew Carnegie spent $56.2 million to build 2509 libraries across the world. Known as Carnegie Libraries, cities had to follow a strict maintenance commitment to obtain funding. Today, there are an estimated 900 Carnegie Libraries operating in the United States.

en.wikipedia.org

35.3k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/kkoolook • 8h ago

TIL that there were counterclockwise clocks.

historyfacts.com

110 Upvotes

34 comments

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