Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL in 2005 a typo nearly bankrupted one of Japan’s largest investment banks, Mizuho Securities. A broker mistakenly sold 610,000 shares at 1 yen each instead of 1 share at 610,000 yen. Attempts to cancel the trade failed. Mizuho lost over $225 million in minutes. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 16:49

TIL Gunter Schabowski accidentally announced the opening of the Berlin Wall at a press conference in 1989. He had not reviewed the press release script and was absent during the Politburo deliberations. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 15:50

TIL that President Nixon had an "Enemies List" targeting over 200 political opponents, activists, journalists, and celebrities, including Paul Newman, Jane Fonda, and John Lennon, with plans to use IRS audits and FBI surveillance against them. The list was exposed during the Watergate scandal. [Source]

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10 Nov 2024 14:50

TIL Wishing to "put a tip of gold on a golden life", philosopher Peregrinus Proteus, promised to set himself on fire in public, and he delivered: on the final night of the 165AD Olympics, he lit his own funeral pyre near Olympia and jumped in after delivering his own eulogy to a crowd of spectators [Source]

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10 Nov 2024 09:49

TIL I learned a man named Joel Burger married a woman named Ashley King in 2015.Burger King paid for their wedding. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 05:49

TIL virologist Beata Halassy cured her breast cancer by injecting viruses into the tumor [Source]

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10 Nov 2024 04:49

TIL Harrison Ruffin Tyler is the (living) person with the oldest father. His dad was born in 1853. [Source]

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10 Nov 2024 02:49

TIL the 1939 Nazi rally at Nuremberg was supposed to be "the Rally of Peace". It was cancelled last-minute because Germany invaded Poland, igniting the Second World War. [Source]

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09 Nov 2024 22:49

TIL Lemmy (Motörhead) appeared in a pornographic film starring John Wayne Bobbitt, whose penis was amputated by his wife, but surgically reattached. Ron Jeremy said Lemmy contributed the song "Under the Knife" to the film's soundtrack. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 21:49

TIL that Michael Bay was originally attached to direct the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. However, he later left the project because he couldn't find a way to approach the material. [Source]

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09 Nov 2024 20:49

TIL Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't allowed to dub his own role in Terminator in German, as his accent is very rural by German/Austrian standards and it would be too ridiculous to have a death machine from the future come back in time and sound like a hillbilly. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 19:49

Today I learned that Stilton cheese cannot legally be made in Stilton, the village which gave the cheese its name [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 18:49

TIL a Muslim woman has dedicated her life to watching over the Jewish museum in Morocco [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL 65% of Staten Island voted to secede from the rest of New York City in 1993, only to have their efforts blocked by the State Assembly [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL that an English chemist named James Price claimed to be able to turn mercury into silver or gold. When asked by members of the Royal Society to perform the experiment in front of credible witnesses, he reluctantly agreed, only to drink poison in front of them instead. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 16:49

TIL The Hotel Arbez was intentionally built by a businessman in 1863, in a race against time during a border dispute. Spanning France and Switzerland, it enabled smuggling as people and goods crossed freely inside. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 15:50

TIL Elwood Edwards was paid $200 in 1989 for recording the iconic phrase "You've Got Mail" for AOL. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 14:50

TIL Hetty Green, the "Witch of Wall Street," became the wealthiest woman of the early 20th century, amassing a $100M fortune (~$2.7B today) by investing in real estate, railroads, and mortgages. Green was also a miser who wore the same black dress daily, ate only oatmeal, and lived in cheap housing. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 10:49

TIL that female Adélie penguins trade stones for sex during a shortage of stones. Extra-pair copulation often occurs at the male's nesting site, after which the female takes one or more stones. In contrast, when it occurs at the female's nesting site, the male doesn’t take a stone. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 06:49

TIL that the terms “left” and “right” in politics stem from the seating arrangements during the French Nat’l Assembly. Delegates were split on how much power King Louis XVI should have—enraged, anti-royalist revolutionaries sat to the left of the presiding officer. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 04:49

TIL In 2019 a man in the United States had a bone marrow transplant for leukemia and four years later his semen was the same as the donor. So, if he had children, they wouldn't have his DNA....he is now considered a chimera. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 Nov 2024 03:49

Today I learned that approximately two thirds of the moon rocks given as gifts by the Nixon administration are unaccounted for. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 23:49

TIL the soft drink 7 Up initially contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug. It was a key selling point until 1948 when the FDA banned lithium from beer and drinks. 7 Up was originally called 7 Up Lithiated Lemon Soda. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 21:49

TIL Before she met Clyde, Bonnie Parker was a waitress. One of her regular customers was Ted Hinton who would later be one of the gunmen who killed her. Hinton later admitted he had a little crush on Bonnie which made hunting her down difficult. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 20:49

TIL about Bass Reeves, a black man who escaped slavery and became a Deputy U.S. Marshal, known for having over 3,000 arrests and 20 kills in the line of duty. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 19:49

TIL that Led Zeppelin was scheduled to play an outdoor show in Singapore on February 14, 1972 but were not allowed into the country, they were even refused permission to get off their plane because they refused to have their long hair cut due to Singapore's law. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 18:49

TIL if California were a country, it would be 5th in the world for GDP. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 18:49

TIL that Margaret Thatcher was opposed to the fall of the Berlin Wall and actively tried to stop it [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 17:49

TIL in order to look strung out Charlie sheen stayed up for 2 days straight to achieve his role in Ferris bueller’s day off [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 Nov 2024 14:49

TIL the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark had the largest production budget in Broadway history at $75 million. When it closed after a three-year run, its investors had reportedly lost $60 million. [Source]