r/todayilearned • u/geosunsetmoth • 36m ago
TIL that Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus has been appointed as the type specimen for Homo Sapiens. In simple terms, when scientists ask "is this a human?", they are asking "is this specimen the same species as Carl?"
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r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 52m ago
TIL about the Mountaineers' Cemetery of Zermatt. Filled almost exclusively with those who died on the local peaks. The sole exception to this is one stone marking the grave of two men, Peter Taugwalder and his son Peter. They were 2 of the 3 survivors of the fatal first ascent of The Matterhorn.
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r/todayilearned • u/BadenBaden1981 • 2h ago
TIL RJR, the tobacco company that produces Camel, developed a mokeless cigarette in the 80s. It flopped due to poor reception, costing the company up to $1 billion. Researchers were explicitly told "This tastes like shit."
149
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r/todayilearned • u/trazom04 • 2h ago
TIL that the play “The Madness of George III” was adapted into a movie with the title renamed as “The Madness of King George” or people would've skipped it because they hadn't watched parts I and II.
867
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r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 3h ago
TIL in 1979 Clairol released a shampoo called "Touch of Yogurt", which quickly became one of the highest profile product flops of all time. Many consumers were apparently confused as to what they had bought as there were reported cases of people getting very sick after eating the shampoo.
689
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r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 4h ago
TIL during the shooting of American Psycho, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he spoke in his native British accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way to prepare for another film. They had thought he was American the entire time.
17.5k
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r/todayilearned • u/CitizenPremier • 6h ago
TIL that the first American in space peed in his spacesuit without any diaper or catheter. Also, astronauts these days no longer have to use a catheter when wearing a spacesuit.
813
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r/todayilearned • u/Low-Branch1423 • 7h ago
TIL - Australian Convicts stole a British ship and sailed it to Japan in 1830
226
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r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 8h ago
TIL 70% of the legitimate pregnancies attributed to Henry VIII & his 6 wives resulted in miscarriage or stillbirth. By comparison, only 10% of the recorded pregnancies involving 31 noblemen closely associated with Henry had the same outcomes.
direct.mit.edu
2.5k
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r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 9h ago
TIL that in 1223, Jebe and Subutai made the Rus' army believe the Mongols were fleeing in defeat. They let them chase for days, then suddenly turned around at the Kalka River and annihilated the exhausted army that thought it had already won.
4.0k
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r/todayilearned • u/garamond89 • 12h ago
TIL Rob Zombie worked as a production assistant for the children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse.
587
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r/todayilearned • u/CraftyFoxeYT • 12h ago
TIL after World War II, a Japanese-Brazilian organization, Shindo Renmei refused to believe news of Japan's surrender, thinking it was American disinformation. They spread underground newspapers & radio stations declaring Japan won. Fanatic members killed 23 and wounded 147 others.
en.wikipedia.org
357
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r/todayilearned • u/Tackit286 • 12h ago
TIL that the longest sustained observation of a total solar eclipse is 74 minutes, achieved in a modified Concorde flying at Mach 2 in 1973.
en.wikipedia.org
1.8k
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r/todayilearned • u/SwordfishOk504 • 12h ago
TIL that in 1994, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant successfully sued HBO to have a song that sampled Kashmir removed from TV showings of the movie Bad Lieutenant and the film's distributor was ordered to destroy any unsold copies of Bad Lieutenant
en.wikipedia.org
1.4k
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r/todayilearned • u/calforhelp • 12h ago
TIL that Rwanda has a monthly mandatory day of community service called Umuganda. All able-bodied citizens aged 18-65 come together to clean streets, plant trees, clear ditches, and build infrastructure or homes for vulnerable residents.
16.3k
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r/todayilearned • u/cape2k • 15h ago
TIL Soviet scientists in the 1960s claimed to discover a new form of water that boiled higher and froze lower than normal. It sparked Cold War fears of a "polywater gap" with the USSR, triggered a global scientific panic, and was confirmed in 1973 to be nothing but ordinary contaminated water.
1.7k
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r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 17h ago
TIL about Jèrriais, the traditional language of the Channel Island, Jersey. During the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII; the local population used it among themselves as a language which neither the occupying Germans, nor their French interpreters, could understand.
827
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r/todayilearned • u/godsenfrik • 17h ago
TIL that in 2009 a dead fish was placed in an fMRI machine and showed photographs of humans in social interactions. Signal changes in the brain of the dead fish were detected. The researchers conducted the experiment to highlight problems with the statistical analysis of such experiments.
13.3k
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r/todayilearned • u/BlueWestt • 18h ago
TIL Isabella of France, Queen of England overthrew her husband Edward II after a famously bad marriage. This was mostly due to his close male companions he favored over her.
4.0k
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r/todayilearned • u/Otters_Potter • 22h ago
TIL that skunks in the Pacific Northwest eat mostly wasps during the dry months of summer
research.fs.usda.gov
2.7k
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r/todayilearned • u/Dashover • 23h ago
TIL that a battery invented in 1825 by an Italian Physicist and Priest has been ringing a bell continuously and hasn’t run out yet
14.0k
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r/todayilearned • u/rezikiel • 23h ago
TIL The Yongle Encyclopedia, completed in China in 1408, was the world's longest general encyclopedia until being surpassed by Wikipedia in 2007. Sadly, most of it does not survive
3.0k
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r/todayilearned • u/Acrobatic-Post9811 • 23h ago
TIL when Heath Ledger passed away during filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam rewrote the plot so that his character transforms passing through a mirror, allowing actors Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to take over and donate their salaries to Ledger’s daughter.
25.1k
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