Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 18:50

TIL that Otis Redding’s iconic song 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay' was recorded just days before he died in a plane crash, and it became the first posthumous number-one single in the U.S. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 17:49

TIL that there was once a breed of dog called a "turnspit dog" that was bred to run on a wheel, to turn meat cooking over a fire. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 14:49

TIL that in the 18th century English sailors aboard the HMS Dolphin stopped in Tahiti and discovered the women there would take iron in exchange for sex, resulting in the sailors removing nails from the ship and trading them in for their personal gratification. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 08:49

TIL while filming Game of Thrones, Charlie Dance (Tywin Lannister) apologized to Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) after every scene where he had to treat Dinklage "like shit." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 06:49

TIL the actor who had won the most Golden Raspberries (Razzies) is Sylvester Stallone with 12 wins [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 04:49

TIL that there are large (>200 m length) tanker ships that are built and operated solely to transport orange juice. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 01:49

TIL of the death of Rudolf Rupp. His wife, two daughters, and one of their boyfriends falsely confessed to and were sentenced to jail for killing, dismembering, and feeding Rupp to dogs on the family farm. They were all later acquitted when his body was found intact in his car in the Danube. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 23:49

TIL KitKat filling is made from broken KitKats [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 21:50

TIL the world’s longest light rail line is in Los Angeles, whose A/Blue Line runs 48.5 miles (78.1 km) from Long Beach, through downtown, and ends in Azusa. A full-length trip takes just shy of 2 hours. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 20:49

TIL That the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, is not connected to a sewer system and as such has trucks manually remove human excrement from it daily. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 19:49

TIL That during the filming of 'Dazed and Confused' Milla Jovovich, then 16, married her onscreen boyfriend Shawn Andrews who was 21. Jovovich's mother had the marriage annulled two months later. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 18:50

TIL a teen who had a diet of French fries, Pringles, white bread, and an occasional slice of ham or sausage was found to have severe vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition damage, and he had developed blind spots in the middle of his vision. It is stated that his sight loss is permanent. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 17:49

TIL Kellogg's cofounder John Kellogg ran a sanitarium in Battle Creek MI where his cereals were part of the patient's diet. Future competitor CW Post was a patient in 1891, settled in the same town and started selling his own knock-offs of Kellogg's cereals and even opened his own sanitarium in 1892 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 16:49

TIL that the Beatles played Dingwall, Scotland, in 1963 and only 19 people attended [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 14:49

TIL of Ronald McIntosh. He was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for escaping prison, stealing a helicopter, and landing it at another prison’s exercise yard to pick up his convict girlfriend Samantha Lopez. They were caught 10 days later by the FBI. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 18:50

TIL Anyone in the US can sign up to get a free horse through the Wild Horse and Burro program, provided they have the means to store and care for it. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 16:50

TIL that Avril Lavigne twice won MVP in a boys' pee-wee hockey league. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 09:49

TIL an autistic single dad of an autistic son quit his job to run a Minecraft server only autistic people could join, so they have a community to socially interact with others without being bullied. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 07:49

TIL 'previous translations (of Mein Kamf) had corrected the language, giving the false impression that Hitler was a "cultured man" with "coherent and grammatically correct reasoning"' [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 05:49

TIL the song "Hey Man, Nice Shot" was written about the televised public suicide of disgraced Pennsylvania state treasurer Budd Dwyer. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 Oct 2024 02:49

TIL Boston Dynamics was acquired by Hyundai Motor Group in 2020. In 2022 the company signed a pledge saying it would not weaponise any of its robots. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 23:49

TIL over 70% of Irish men are hazardous drinkers according to the WHO's AUDIT-C screen tool [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 22:49

TIL about Herman Davis, a World War I soldier renowned for his extraordinary marksmanship. With just his Springfield rifle and open sights, he took out five enemy soldiers from 1,000 yards away. He humbly described it as “just a good shootin' distance.” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 21:50

TIL that Glow Sticks were found to break multiple consumer protection laws in 2014. "The use of dibutyl phthalate in glow sticks, considered to be toys, is a violation of the law" and in seven out of nine cases, the chemical ingredients did not match what was reported. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 19:49

TIL that Queen Victoria was the shortest of all British monarchs with height of only 1.52 m [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 18:50

TIL that from 2016 to 2023, John Deere's End User Agreement prohibited non-authorized technicians from servicing any component or system that had embedded software. Farmers could not repair their own equipment nor get third-party repair services. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 17:49

TIL the Geographic Center of the contiguous states of the U.S is about 2 miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas. It was officially established by the U.S Geological Survey and is a point where a plane map of the 48 states would balance if it were of uniform thickness. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 17:49

TIL that the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in 1963 was broadcast live on national television and is the first known human killing seen live on TV. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 16:49

TIL that the English announcements on Japanese bullet trains are actually in a posh Australian accent (not British!) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 Oct 2024 14:49

TIL that the corpse of William the Conqueror was so bloated that it wouldn't fit into the tomb during his funeral, exploding when forced into place and spreading a disgusting odour throughout the church. [Source]