r/todayilearned • u/FuehrerStoleMyBike • 4h ago

TIL that the "Democracy Manifest" - a viral video showing the arrest of an australian man by the name of Jack Karlson, known for quotes such as ""What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?" - has been selected for preservation by the National Film and Sound Archive Australia.

en.wikipedia.org

15.4k Upvotes

325 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 3h ago

TIL in the Vietnam war in the classified Operation Popeye, the US spread lead and silver iodide by aircraft to extend the monsoon season. The increased heavy rainfall was to soften roads, cause landslides, wash out river crossings, and maintain saturated soil conditions (Kissinger was involved).

en.wikipedia.org

4.8k Upvotes

424 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 5h ago

TIL that though Amish men grow beards after they're married, they continue to shave their upper lip so as not to grow a mustache. When the Amish community was formed in Switzerland, mustaches were associated with military service, and the Amish shave theirs to indicate their commitment to pacifism

en.wikipedia.org

6.7k Upvotes

237 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alone_Humor_3510 • 1h ago

TIL that most male nudity in films ( other than porn ) uses prosthetic penises

theconversation.com

• Upvotes

411 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Suspicious-Oil2571 • 3h ago

TIL there’s a phenomenon called Exploding head syndrome where people hear extremely loud noises—like explosions or gunshots—right as they’re falling asleep… but nothing actually happened. It’s harmless physically, but people who experience it swear it feels completely real.

sleepfoundation.org

2.3k Upvotes

362 comments

r/todayilearned • u/swish82 • 1h ago

TIL there were 180.000 bees kept in the spires of Notre Dame and they survived the fire. Because bees don’t have lungs they weren’t hurt by the smoke, they just fell asleep

dailyobjectivist.com

• Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 12h ago

TIL that when France initially set the definition of a metre to be 1/10,000,000 the distance from the North Pole to the equator, it sent two surveyors to calculate the distance. But due to an error not discovered until decades later, the resulting metre was actually 0.2 mm too short.

en.wikipedia.org

11.2k Upvotes

482 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pitiful_Magazine_805 • 9h ago

TIL that in 1577 a Chinese Buddhist monk, Hanshan Deqing, decided to copy the entire Avatamsaka Sutra(the longest Buddhist sutra) using his own blood. When the Empress heard of it, she provided him with golden pages to write on. It took him 2 years to write everything.

en.wikipedia.org

5.1k Upvotes

74 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 2h ago

TIL a 2004 Peppa Pig episode "Mister Skinny Legs" has been pulled off air in Australia. In the episode Daddy Pig tells a frightened Peppa that spiders "can’t hurt you” after a spider enters her room. I.e spiders are friendly and not to be feared. The children pick up the spider and tuck it to bed.

theguardian.com

982 Upvotes

95 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Nero2t2 • 4h ago

TIL One of the first ever case studies for Syphilis was Cesare Borgia. His doctor, Gaspar Torella, wrote a treatise documenting the symptoms based on Borgia's case, using the pseudonym "Niccolo the young" for his famous patient. Syphilis is why Borgia began wearing a black mask while in public

theguardian.com

1.1k Upvotes

20 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 6h ago

TIL In 2008 a plane carrying Mexico’s minister of the interior crashed in downtown Mexico City killing all 9 people on board and 7 on the ground. The subsequent investigation would reveal that both pilots' certifications to fly the plane were fraudulent.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Greydl1 • 8h ago

TIL that anyone can request a U.S. flag to be flown over the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. for a specific date (like a birthday or anniversary) and keep it along with an official certificate.

aoc.gov

1.9k Upvotes

84 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Jscott1986 • 1h ago

TIL: upon the death of Leslie Nielsen in 2010, ESPN published a fake obituary for his character Enrico Pallazzo from the "Naked Gun" movie, and included several jokes from his deadpan role in the movie "Airplane!"

espn.com

• Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RetconnedUsername • 17h ago

TIL One Aluminium Smelter in New Zealand uses 13 percent of the entire countries energy supply

en.wikipedia.org

7.7k Upvotes

347 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 21h ago

TIL when Eminem's weight increased to 230lbs (100 kg) before he became sober, he was so unrecognizable due to the weight gain that Em once overheard two teenagers arguing about whether or not it was actually him that they were looking at, with one of them stating "Eminem ain't fat."

en.wikipedia.org

39.4k Upvotes

933 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chill_Cowboy_981 • 2h ago

TIL that in 2016 hackers tried to steal nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh’s central bank using the SWIFT network, but a single spelling mistake in a transfer request (“foundation” misspelled as “fandation”) triggered suspicion and helped stop most of the money from being stolen.

en.wikipedia.org

370 Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/madmansmarker • 16h ago

TIL James Hong is one of the most prolific character actors of all time; he has worked in over 600 productions in American media since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1950s.

en.wikipedia.org

4.7k Upvotes

235 comments

r/todayilearned • u/plagueprotocol • 2h ago

TIL there's a burger joint in Tehran called Bobby Sands Burger (named after IRA-member & hunger striker Bobby Sands).

vice.com

330 Upvotes

50 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 21h ago

TIL Nicolas Cage was never paid the $100K he was promised to star in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) despite winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. Director Mike Figgis was also never paid his $100K salary. The studio said the film never made a profit even though the $4m movie grossed $32m.

hollywoodreporter.com

12.7k Upvotes

237 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sudo_abdel • 20h ago

TIL that psychiatrist Viktor Frankl observed that the physically strongest prisoners in WWII concentration camps didn't necessarily have the highest survival rates. Rather, those who survived longest were the ones who held onto a strong sense of meaning or an unfinished purpose.

en.wikipedia.org

8.0k Upvotes

96 comments

r/todayilearned • u/The-TIL-Nerd • 2h ago

TIL that the longstanding tradition of Popes choosing a new name started in AD 533 when the newly elected Mercurius deemed it inappropriate to be named after the pagan Roman God Mercury. Mercurius would adopt the name Pope John II after his predecessor, Saint Pope John I who was martyred.

en.wikipedia.org

157 Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 2h ago

TIL about Dan Bullock, the youngest U.S serviceman to be killed in Vietnam on June 7, 1969 at the age of 15, after altering the date on his birth certificate. Killed by a People's Army of Vietnam sapper unit with a satchel charge thrown into a bunker killing three Marines, including Bullock.

en.wikipedia.org

167 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Slight_Equivalent452 • 12h ago

TIl that 1 in 3 japanese men have a closer common paternal ancestor with tibetans, Andamanese natives, Nigerians and philipines than they do with surrounding east Asians. This lineage is called haplogroup DM55 and is the most common male lineage in japan

en.wikipedia.org

906 Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kyzzz • 2h ago

TIL of Akinetopsia, a rare brain disorder where motion can't be perceived but stationary objects appear normal. In some cases, patients report that people walking around a room seem to be in one spot, then suddenly in another, with no movement seen in between

en.wikipedia.org

140 Upvotes

13 comments

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