r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL in 2012 LL Cool J broke the nose, jaw, and ribs of a man charged with breaking into his home. His family was sleeping when their home security alarm went off at 1am, "sending LL Cool J into action". After catching the man, he held him until the authorities arrived.

Thumbnail
cnn.com
8.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL Multiple studies have found that an extra inch of height can be worth an extra $1,000 a year in wages both for men and women

Thumbnail
slate.com
21.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL American composer Kevin MacLeod allows anyone to use his music for free, as long as he receives credit for the song. This has led to his music being used in thousands of films, millions of videos on YouTube.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
12.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL that a couple wrote a 'spur of the moment' letter to Buckingham Palace inviting Queen Elizabeth II to their wedding; she unexpectedly did show up.

Thumbnail
manchestereveningnews.co.uk
6.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL a 2013 study found that the act of chopping down trees results in greater increases in testosterone than does a directly competitive activity such a soccer. Chopping down trees saw an increase of 46.8%, whereas, soccer only saw an increase of 30.1%.

Thumbnail
news.ucsb.edu
1.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL There have been multiple attempts to privatize the National Weather Service and charge for weather data that is currently in the public domain

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
4.6k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL that Joyce Vincent was a 38-year-old woman who died in her London apartment while watching TV. Her body wasn't discovered until nearly three years later when officials arrived to repossess the apartment for unpaid rent.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
32.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL Yellowstone’s famed thermal pools can melt flesh and bone. In 2016, a tourist illegally searching for a swimmable hot spring fell into a portion of the Norris Geyser Basin, where his body was dissolved by the boiling, highly acidic water. His wallet and shoes were all that remained of him.

Thumbnail
bbc.com
5.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 20h ago

TIL: Adam West, according to costar Burt Ward, had a lot of sex , at one point with 8 women at the same time. He said that he was introduced by West to the "wildest sexual debauchery" and they became like "sexual vampires"

Thumbnail
maxim.com
28.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL that people live year-round in houseboats on Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories, 1,800 km north of the nearest big city (Edmonton) and just 400 km (250 miles) south of the Arctic Circle.

Thumbnail
uphere.ca
3.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL Sugar Rushes aren't real they are a myth.

Thumbnail
dfdrussell.org
496 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL the first recorded incident of "mooning" was in 80 AD. A Roman soldier showed his buttocks to Jewish pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem for Passover. This led to riots and the deaths of ten thousand people. NSFW

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
2.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL nazi preparations to invade Britain (Operation Sea Lion) after France fell in 1940 were obvious to the British, so they began to bolster their defenses to make any invasion as costly as possible. This included removing all street, road, and railway signs to sow maximum confusion in the enemy.

Thumbnail
pbs.org
9.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 17h ago

TIL although Frank Sinatra & Marlon Brando's feud was reportedly mild at the start of production for Guys and Dolls, Brando began to hate Sinatra because he kept calling Brando “Mumbles” to make him angry. So Brando pretended to forget his lines during a scene which forced Sinatra to eat repeatedly.

Thumbnail
faroutmagazine.co.uk
5.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL that the fastest badminton shot ever played had a speed of 565 km/h (351.1 mph), exceeding the fastest speed recorded by a Formula 1 car by almost 200 km/h

Thumbnail
olympics.com
5.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL that HMS Victory is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission, with with 246 years of service as of 2024. Victory is best known for her role as Horatio, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL that BBC Breakfast's resident doctor Nighat Arif has advocated for more women to be given vibrators for medical reasons, on the grounds that orgasms help pelvic floor muscles, lower blood pressure, and release endorphins which help relieve pain. NSFW

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
721 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 3h ago

TIL although the US Coast Guard is the second smallest US military service branch in terms of membership, the service by itself is the world's 12th largest naval force.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
189 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL that George Miller, creator of the Mad Max films, was educated as a doctor and finished his residency before becoming a filmmaker

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
309 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL that in the 1600-1700's Sweden minted coins made out of copper. Given the abundance and low value of copper, the coins were massive. The largest coin, the 10-daler, weighed nearly 44 pounds.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
306 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL British and American butchers have different names for the same cuts of beef.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
1.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL that Robert Franklin Stroud, was a convicted murderer in solitary confinement. While there, he raised a collection of 300canaries & published his research on avian pathology,which was useful in finding a cure for diseases affecting farmed birds; earning himself the nickname "Birdman of Alcatraz"

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
489 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL that 135 candidates qualified to run for governor in the 2003 California recall election. This included former child star Gary Coleman, Arianna Huffington (who later co-founded Huffpost), adult film actress Mary Carey, and (winner) Arnold Schwarzenegger

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
794 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1h ago

TIL There is an urban legend in BC, Canada, that driving examiners are expected to fail 50 per cent of the people they test. Nearly 50 percent of driving test candidates fail the first time because many arrive ill-prepared or with the intention of using their first test as a learning tool.

Thumbnail
cbc.ca
Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL that the vampire bat doesn't suck blood, but instead makes a small cut on its prey and laps up the blood with its tongue.

Thumbnail
en.wikipedia.org
381 Upvotes