Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL the British colonial government in India had created state-sanctioned brothels for "entertaining" English soldiers, something the English feminists and abolitionists of the time noted with horror. The girls would often be abducted from villages and tended to be as young as fourteen. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL in 2022 a chess-playing robot broke the finger of its 7-year-old opponent after the boy didn't give it enough time to respond & attempted to move again. The robot held his finger in place for 15 seconds before bystanders were able to pry it free. The boy then played with his finger in a cast. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 16:49

TIL MAD Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman has mysterious origins; his face has been used in advertisements since at least the 1890s. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 11:49

TIL gunshot wounds can cause lead poisoning years later from tiny lead fragments in the bone leaching into the body [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 07:49

TIL King George III had empathy for Native Americans and pushed the the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade all new settlements west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains, which was delineated as an Indian Reserve. This angered many Colonists. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 04:49

TIL during/after the Korean War, South Korea state-sponsored prostitution for US troops, framing it as women's 'patriotic duty.' Camp towns from the DMZ to Seoul were called 'GI Heaven. The sex workers endured severe abuses to facilitate "sexual hygiene" such as forced medication and imprisonment. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL In Sweden, a couple tried to name their child “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116” They claimed it was pronounced “Albin.” It was rejected.The parents suggested that the name be understood in the spirit of 'pataphysics'. The court rejected the name and upheld the fine. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 01:49

TIL A charity in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed candies filled with lethal doses of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the sweets were anonymously donated by a member of the public. Each candy contained up to 300 times a normal dose of meth [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL Mary Magdalene was wrongly labeled as a prostitute [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL that in 1774, Colonial Americans had the highest standard of living in the Western world - with annual per‑capita income of about £14, outpacing Britain, France, and Spain [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 20:49

TIL a Galápagos tortoise believed extinct since 1906 was rediscovered in 2022 on a remote island. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 16:50

TIL that the Y chromosome is passed almost unchanged from father to son, which is how scientists were able to trace a vast number of direct male descendants back to Genghis Khan. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 15:49

TIL a man with chronic déjà vu was "trapped in a time loop" for 8 years, which forced him to drop out of university. He was unable to read newspapers or watch TV because he believed he had seen it all before, despite not having any neurological condition chronic déjà vu patients usually suffer from. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 13:49

TIL That a governor disappeared by going to Argentina for an extramarital affair. During his six day disappearance, one of the governors spokesperson claimed he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" is now a euphemism for a sexual scandal. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 07:49

TIL when infamous fraudster Bernie Madoff died, he was cremated (contrary to Jewish tradition) and his family refused to claim his ashes, so they are currently sitting in a lawyer's office. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL Stephen King once threw away the manuscript for Carrie, believing it wasn’t good enough. He was living in a trailer with his wife, Tabitha, who found the pages in the trash, read them, and pushed him to finish and submit it. The novel launched his career. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 16:49

TIL the BBC broadcast coded messages to British secret agents behind enemy lines during WWII [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 14:49

TIL that in 1691, a man was called to testify as a witness to robbery and told the court that God turned him into a werewolf so he could raid Hell and fight the demons there. The judges took his claim seriously and banished him from Livonia for sorcery. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 09:49

TIL that Pope Celestine V resigned just 5 months into his papacy in 1294 because he never wanted the job and wanted to go back to his cave, he was chosen after a 2-year deadlock, felt overwhelmed by Vatican politics, issued a decree allowing popes to quit, and then used it to step down. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 05:49

TIL that during the American Revolutionary War, African-Americans served in the British army over 2-to-1 versus in the American army because they viewed a British victory as a way to achieve freedom from slavery [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 04:49

TIL Sweden is capable of domestically building submarines, frigates, jet fighters and satellites, despite having a population of just over 10 million people. Per capita it is one of the largest arms exporters on the planet. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 01:49

TIL about Franceska Mann. A Jewish ballerina who arrived at Auschwitz in 1943 and was about to be gassed, she managed to take a pistol from an SS-officer and then killed him with it, starting a riot. The riot ended when SS reinforcements arrived and mowed the prisoners down with machineguns. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL that despite their drivers being nicknamed “Massholes”, Massachusetts roads are annually ranked the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd safest in the country. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL that Japanese trains are on average only 18 seconds late. If a train is delayed by more than a minute, passengers often receive an official delay certificate to show their employer why they are late [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL the book 'Rage' by Stephen King was taken out of print after being found in the lockers of school shooters. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL that Frisian is the closest language to English. It's spoken by about 400,000 people living mostly on the coast of the North Sea, with the highest concentration in the Dutch province of Friesland. Though similar to English, they are not mutually intelligible [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 15:49

TIL in 2012, India’s Patent Office issued a compulsory license overriding Bayer Pharma’s patent on the cancer drug Nexavar, allowing an Indian generics firm to locally manufacture and sell the drug for just $175/month instead of Bayer's $5,500/month, making the treatment much more accessible. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 14:49

TIL of Operation Moolah which was an US effort to capture a Soviet MIG-15 fighter jet during the Korean war. The US offered asylum and 100 000$ to anyone who would defect with one. The North Korean pilot who eventually defected with a MIG-15 didn't know about the reward. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 09:49

TIL a company that made smart airline suitcases had to shut down operations after several major airlines banned luggage with non-removable batteries to reduce the risk of battery fires. The company claims they had sold around 65,000 suitcases around the time of the ban. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 Jul 2025 06:49

[TIL] It took U of Oklahoma students just two days to defeat a new, electronic, windshield-blocking parking enforcement device called The Barnacle, using things like defoggers, Faraday cages, and bait cars. [Source]