Today I Learned 🎓

14 Jul 2025 08:49

TIL the term "gaslighting" comes from a 1938 play where a man dims the gas lights in his home and convinces his wife she's imagining it, to make her think she's going insane. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL Roseanne Barr was hit by a car, and the car's hood ornament impaled her skull; the incident left her with a traumatic brain injury. Her behavior changed so radically that she was institutionalized for eight months at Utah State Hospital. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Jul 2025 01:49

TIL the tradition of white wedding dresses were started by Queen Victoria. in 1840 Before then brides used their best dress of any color, even black ones. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL that Sylvester Stallone’s famous look is due to a nerve injury at birth, not Bell’s Palsy [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL during WWI, syphilis treatment was administered at a hospital over a 30-day period, thereby guaranteeing an escape from the frontline (even if temporary) for an infected soldier. The result was that some prostitutes in France with particularly bad syphilis infections could charge more. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 20:49

TIL that Battle of Wounded Knee received disproportionate number of Medals of Honor when compared to some other battles and by some is considered a massacre given how many casualties were unarmed woman and children [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL that from 1992-1997, two-thirds of Albania’s population invested in state-backed pyramid schemes, with many people investing their life savings. When 25 schemes collapsed, civil unrest erupted, lasting over six months, toppling the government and requiring UN intervention to restore order. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 16:49

TIL that on 13 July 1985, the US leg of Live Aid was opened by a complete unknown called Bernard Watson - an 18yo high school graduate from Miami Beach with no professional musical experience. He slept outside the stadium for a week to convince Bill Graham - the concert's promoter - to let him play. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 14:49

TIL that in 1929, Jimmy Doolittle made the first flight using only instruments, with the cockpit windows blacked out. Proving pilots could fly “blind.” This paved the way for modern aviation. He later led the famous 1942 Doolittle Raid, the first U.S. airstrike on Japan in WWII. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 10:49

TIL that during the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix, F1 driver Martin Donnelly survived a terrifying 140 mph crash that flung him onto the track while still strapped to his seat, as his car split in half. His injuries were so severe that a priest was called to administer last rites. He survived. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 09:49

TIL on the US West Coast, particularly Northern California, it's more common to play "Ro-Sham-Bo", instead of "Rock-Paper-Scissors". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 04:49

TIL Bigorexia is a condition where someone thinks that their body is puny or not muscular enough, even if objectively they would be considered fit or athletic by other people, the condition is also called Muscle Dysmorphia. About 10% of the men going to the gym suffers from it. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 01:49

TIL the McRib is made from bits of pig shoulder which are reconstituted with a binding agent into a larger product. Meat restructuring was developed by the US Army to deliver low-cost meat to troops, and McDonald's took the process as the government doesn't patent their intellectual property. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL in The Office the characters Toby, Ryan and Kelly were located in “the annex” because those actors were also head writers for the show. Not requiring them in the background for scenes that did not directly involve their characters allowed them to attend to other off-camera responsibilities. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Jul 2025 19:49

TIL the only Indian POW held in Colditz Castle during WWII, Birendra Nath Mazumdar, was shunned by his fellow inmates. To improve his odds of escaping, he staged a hunger strike to get transferred to an all-Indian camp. It worked & he escaped from the new camp & walked 900km to Switzerland & freedom [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Jul 2025 06:49

TIL that when the Crown Prince of Albania, Leka returned to Albania in 2022, he brought with him 11 cases of automatic weapons, grenades, and hunting arms. The authorities seized them but gave them back after being deemed items of cultural heritage. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL nobody is entirely sure why the beverage 7UP was named 7UP [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL 5 Kyoto temples have bloodstained ceilings taken from Fushimi Castle floorboards, site of a siege & mass suicide that delayed Ishida Mitsunari’s forces. This allowed Tokugawa leyasu to prepare for the battle of Sekigahara, unifying Japan. The ceilings honor the fallen samurai of Fushumi Castle. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL that Benjamin Franklin left about 1,000 pounds sterling in a trust for Boston and Philadelphia in his will. The money couldn’t be touched for 200 years. When it matured in the 1990s, Boston had over $5 million, which was used to fund scholarships and public works. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL Ron Gilbert, co-developer of the 1987 game "Maniac Mansion," coined the phrase "cutscenes" for the game's innovative use of non-playable videos that "interrupt gameplay to advance the story and inform the player about offscreen events." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 18:49

TIL that due to teasing, basketball player God Shammgod went by Shammgod Wells until high school. He only reverted to his birth name when he enrolled in college as he was told he would have to register under his legal name and could not afford to have it legally changed. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL in 2020 a man in Como, Italy stepped outside to cool off after fighting with his wife and ended up walking 450km. His walk eventually ended a week later when he was stopped in Fano and fined €400 for breaking the curfew. His wife, who had reported him missing, travelled to Fano to collect him. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 16:49

TIL the German submarine U-864 was sunk along the Norwegian coast in 1945 with 67 tons of mercury on board. The wreck has contaminated nearby cod, cusk and crab, and there are plans to entomb the remains in sand and concrete. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 11:49

TIL that Timothy Dexter (a wealthy but eccentric businessman) faked his death to see how many people would attend his funeral. Over 3,000 mourners showed up, but he revealed the ruse after berating his wife for not mourning enough. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 10:49

TIL that the bacterium devastating millions of olive trees in Italy, causing over €5.5 billion in annual damages, has been traced back to a single infected coffee plant imported from Costa Rica in 2008 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 06:49

TIL There has only been one instance of a submarine sinking another sub while both were underwater, in 1945 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 Jul 2025 03:49

TIL that Josephine Baker adopted 12 children of all skin colors, creating what she referred to as her “rainbow tribe” and her “experiment in brotherhood.” The children were all brought up in accordance with their heritage and the religions that Baker assigned to them. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL that Thalidomide (morning sickness drug that caused birth defects) is a chiral molecule. The drug that was marketed was a 50/50 mixture of left and right-handed molecules. While the left-handed molecule was EFFECTIVE, the right-handed one was highly TOXIC [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Jul 2025 20:49

TIL of the 1,213 warships involved in D-Day, 892 were British & just 200 were American. Of the 4,126 landing craft involved, 3,261 were British & 805 were American. In addition, two-thirds of the 12,000 aircraft involved in D-Day were also British. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 Jul 2025 19:49

TIL Einstein’s famous tongue-out photo was taken on his 72nd birthday, after a long day of smiling for photographers, when he was tired of posing, so he stuck out his tongue instead. [Source]