215
TodayILearned now in Telegram! More channels: @reddit2telegram_bot Chat for ideas: https://telegram.me/r_channels
TIL that the FDA does not recognize Dr Pepper as a cola, a root beer, or a fruit-flavored soft drink. Instead, Dr Pepper is said to be in a category of its own kind, called "pepper soda", named for the brand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Pepper
https://redd.it/1e43uuq
@r_til
TIL in a family with twelve children, six of the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were later found to possess a genetic mutation that is so vital to brain function that it could help researchers understand how schizophrenia works.
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/05/826695581/in-hidden-valley-road-a-familys-journey-helps-shift-the-science-of-mental-illnes
https://redd.it/1e2u2mq
@r_til
TIL that Abraham Lincoln founded the US Secret Service hours before being assassinated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service
https://redd.it/1e2v1vu
@r_til
TIL Natalia Tena, who played Osha in Game of Thrones, was denied a pubic wig for her nude scenes despite arguing that her character, a Wildling, wouldn’t shave or trim. She wasn't even allowed to grow out her own hair, as the directors insisted on it being short.
https://www.themarysue.com/game-of-thrones-nudity/
https://redd.it/1e3fpzl
@r_til
TIL when the band Slayer came to Toronto in 2018, a fan was kicked out of the open-air venue they were playing at for unruly behaviour. He then jumped into the lake surrounding the open-air venue to swim back in. He was banned for a year, but was later immortalized on a beer can label.
https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/fan-slayer-budweiser-label/
https://redd.it/1e385yb
@r_til
TIL that Hannibal Buress hired a lookalike to attend the movie premiere for “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in his place for $500 and it worked for the most part
https://variety.com/2017/film/news/hannibal-buress-sends-impersonator-spiderman-premiere-1202482849/
https://redd.it/1e3apoo
@r_til
TIL that Smedley Butler is the last person to have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
https://redd.it/1e2lmcs
@r_til
TIL polar explorers would treat snow blindness by dripping cocaine into their eyes.
https://granta.com/shackletons-medical-kit/
https://redd.it/1e21p7f
@r_til
TIL that it was once believed that pulling up a Mandrake would cause you to be condemned to Hell and so animals were tied to the root instead to pull the root out of the ground
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrake#Folklore
https://redd.it/1e272jc
@r_til
TIL 91% of $17.5 billion Bernie Madoff defrauded has been returned to 25k+ investors
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-distribution-over-1589m-nearly-25000-victims-madoff-ponzi
https://redd.it/1e29pcv
@r_til
TIL Sir Ian McKellen came out accidentally, before he'd told his family, during a BBC radio debate on the anti-homosexuality Section 28 legislation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/third-ear--section-28/zbm4scw
https://redd.it/1e286xq
@r_til
TIL Adolf Hitler was such a big fan of Disney that his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels gifted him 18 Mickey Mouse shorts for Christmas 1937. Also Roy Disney sold Hitler a copy of Snow White, which he considered one of the greatest movies ever made, though never shown to the German public.
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animation-anecdotes-231/
https://redd.it/1e1p972
@r_til
TIL Hollywood’s shortest marriage was between Jean Acker and Rudolph Valentino. After the wedding ceremony, Acker locked Valentino out of their honeymoon suite. He left after 20 minutes.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/1/why-hollywoods-shortest-ever-marriage-was-doomed-to-fail-after-just-20-minutes-763763
https://redd.it/1e1h7t5
@r_til
TIL that after England was knocked out of Euro 2004 by Portugal, English tabloids found the email address of the Swiss referee and published it. He received 16,000 hate emails overnight. After that "the Sun" also published the email address of a Swiss radio DJ, who tried to defend his compatriot
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/jul/01/pressandpublishing.football
https://redd.it/1e1j1g5
@r_til
TIL 1 in 8 adults in the US has taken Ozempic or another GLP-1 drug
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/health/ozempic-glp-1-survey-kff/index.html
https://redd.it/1e1hye8
@r_til
TIL Bonny Bakley, wife of actor Robert Blake, had nine other husband's before Blake. She was murdered in 2001, no one was ever convicted of the crime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonny_Lee_Bakley
https://redd.it/1e3ad0e
@r_til
TIL Freddie Mercury was a passionate stamp collector. He amassed an impressive collection from countries all around the world, which is now preserved by the British Postal Museum.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jun/11/freddie-mercurys-priceless-stamp-collection-to-be-celebrated
https://redd.it/1e39e3v
@r_til
TIL: the cover of Caldor's 1998 "Toy Book" holiday ad featured two boys playing Scrabble. One of the words on the board was "RAPE."
https://money.cnn.com/1998/11/05/bizbuzz/caldor/
https://redd.it/1e39pjd
@r_til
TIL - The man who unsuccessfully treated President Garfield after he was shot, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss (First name Doctor), was expelled from the Washington DC Medical Society for his advocacy of homeopathy and his refusal to support the society's segregation of black doctors.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/garfield-whoswho/
https://redd.it/1e35orl
@r_til
TIL that the average American buys 53 new pieces of clothes each year.
https://pirg.org/articles/how-many-clothes-are-too-many
https://redd.it/1e375vk
@r_til
Til that the movie adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm was financed by the C.I.A.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm_(1954_film)#:~:text=After%20Orwell's%20death%20in%201950,anti%2Dcommunist%20art%20for%20E.
https://redd.it/1e27g7w
@r_til
TIL An art professor at Syracuse University grafted a single tree that grows forty different types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds. There are now a handful of these trees in different cities around the US.
https://www.samvanaken.com/tree-of-40-fruit-2
https://redd.it/1e2dvp1
@r_til
TIL In 1997, a 47-year-old man from Houston, Texas, decided to make it his life's mission to visit every Starbucks location in the world. By 2019, he had already visited 15,000 Starbucks shops and spent at least $150,000 on the hobby.
https://www.today.com/food/man-has-spent-150-000-trying-visit-every-starbucks-shop-t161578
https://redd.it/1e2cnia
@r_til
TIL John Nash's son, John Charles Nash, also has a PhD in mathematics and lives with schizophrenia.
https://www.nj.com/healthfit/2017/06/two_years_after_parents_death_son_of_a_beautiful_m.html
https://redd.it/1e2abc0
@r_til
TIL there are 17 Presidents of the United States of America that served the country without a Vice President.
https://forgottenhistoryblog.com/18-american-presidents-didnt-have-a-vice-president-for-all-or-some-of-their-terms/
https://redd.it/1e2i25d
@r_til
TIL that in 1948 the Idaho Dept of Fish and game parachuted 76 beavers into the Chamberlain Basin in Central Idaho
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_drop
https://redd.it/1e1ptn0
@r_til
TIL in February of 2013 the Emergency Alert Systems of stations in Montana and Michigan were breached to play a zombie apocalypse warning, using the lines "Civil authorities in your area have reported bodies of the dead are rising from the graves and attacking the living".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System?wprov=sfti1#Cybersecurity_breaches
https://redd.it/1e1r57w
@r_til
TIL that more than 16 million official U.S. military personnel records were destroyed when the sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center caught fire in 1973. The archive did not have a sprinkler system, smoke detectors, or firewalls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Personnel_Records_Center_fire
https://redd.it/1e1jfbw
@r_til
TIL of a Serbian Vodka that, at 88% alcohol, comes with 13 health warnings including one in braille.
https://www.masterofmalt.com/vodka/balkan-176-degree-vodka/
https://redd.it/1e1gvwy
@r_til
TIL Alcohol was legal in Saudi Arabia until 1952 after the Saudi King's son shot and killed a British diplomat while drunk
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68085190.amp
https://redd.it/1e1nzxn
@r_til