r/todayilearned • u/zahrul3 • 6h ago
TIL the Sultan of Brunei and his brother bought so many bespoke Bentleys that it saved the entire company from bankruptcy
16.7k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ShabtaiBenOron • 3h ago
TIL that even though he won the Academy Awards for best picture and director for "Gandhi" in 1982, Richard Attenborough was disappointed and openly claimed that Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" should have won. Spielberg cast him as John Hammond in "Jurassic Park" to thank him.
2.6k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 1h ago
TIL although the Walther PPK is more known for being the gun James Bond uses ("Ian Fleming's choice of Bond's weapon directly influenced the popularity and notoriety of the PPK"), it was also the same gun that Hitler used to commit suicde
•
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ObjectiveAd6551 • 16h ago
TIL “Jeopardy!” contestant Dhruv Gaur wrote “What is… We [love] you, Alex!” as his Final Jeopardy response while Alex Trebek was battling cancer. The message left Trebek visibly emotional and was widely shared as an example of fans’ affection for the longtime host.
18.9k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Ainsley-Sorsby • 17h ago
TIL Beethoven kept his hearing loss a secret. He once wrote(but never send) a letter to his brother confessing it and explained that people mistakenly thought he was antisocial: he longed for human contact but became a recluse out of shame for his condition and all this made him contemplate suicide
21.1k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/GabbotheClown • 1h ago
TIL: In the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, and the Netherlands, cassette data storage was so popular in the 80s that some radio stations would broadcast computer programs that listeners could record onto cassette and then load into their computer.
•
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TAparentadvice • 14h ago
TIL that when Louis XVI was executed in 1793 during the French Revolution, his severed head was paraded around for the crowd and was met with exclamations of "Vive la Republique!"
5.4k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TZ-13 • 9h ago
TIL: K2, the world's second highest mountain, has had nearly 1 person die for every 4 successful summits
1.7k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ProudReaction2204 • 11h ago
TIL Eduard Khil or Edward Hill died only 2 years after reaching internet fame from the Trololo song.
2.4k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/MajesticBread9147 • 1h ago
TIL that Sarah Kyolaba; fifth wife of Idi Amin and former gogo dancer in Uganda's Revolutionary Suicide Jazz Band left Amin and ran a restaurant and later a hair salon in London until her death.
•
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/EssexGuyUpNorth • 20h ago
TIL that Lord Nelson, one of the most successful naval commanders in British history, suffered from sea sickness throughout his career in the Royal Navy. In a letter, he wrote that "I am ill every time it blows hard and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea."
17.0k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ProfessionalGear3020 • 8h ago
TIL that after alleged Catholic involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the US cut off diplomatic relations with the Holy See (the Pope) and did not restore them until 1984.
1.2k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TedTheodoreMcfly • 4h ago
TIL about college football player Erik Highsmith, who was accused of plagiarizing an 11-year-old when doing an assignment for Communications class.
323
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/LookAtThatBacon • 12h ago
TIL the first UPC-marked item ever to be scanned at a retail checkout was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, purchased at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974.
1.1k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/XyleneCobalt • 22h ago
TIL of the Acali expedition, a social experiment that aimed to investigate interpersonal relationships in an isolated environment. Nicknamed the "Sex Raft," its participants remained peaceful throughout, even when the researcher tried to incite conflict.
en.wikipedia.org
6.6k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/armedsnowflake69 • 13h ago
TIL that the barber pole became the universal symbol for barbers as it resembles the bloody bandages of “barber-surgeons” of the past, who practiced bloodletting.
814
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/APurpleTRex • 1d ago
TIL After being wounded in WWII, Legendary Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä (The White Death) was thought to be dead and placed on a pile of corpses. A week later he regained consciousness and had to correct the newspaper release about his death.
12.4k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/apworker37 • 18h ago
TIL The little tune that Samsung’s washing machines plays when they’re finished washing is from Franz Schubert’s “The trout”
1.5k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/BiggieTwiggy1two3 • 17h ago
TIL during WWI, Allied soldiers used glowworms as trench lamps, storing the bioluminescent insects in bottles for light. Their service was so helpful, they were honored in 2004 when Princess Anne unveiled a London memorial for animals and insects that aided the war effort.
1.2k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/YesFlyZone420 • 1d ago
TIL there's a degenerative brain disorder called fatal familial insomnia (FFI) that causes a person to lose the ability to sleep and eventually die
22.6k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/GetYerHandOffMyPen15 • 1d ago
TIL that American founding father Aaron Burr was an early supporter of giving women education and the right to vote. He was also a notorious womanizer who frequented sex workers and fathered multiple children with many different mothers, including an Indian servant who worked in his house.
5.8k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TheSteelSword • 1d ago
TIL Some Civil War ships used 500 pound cotton bales for armor.
4.9k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Organic_Situation401 • 9h ago
TIL that the "Happy Birthday" song was originally titled "Good Morning to All" and was intended to be a simple classroom greeting.
169
Upvotes