Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 22:49

TIL in 2011 a woman in France sued her ex-husband for compensation over his refusal to have sex with her during their 21-year marriage & won, with a judge ordering her ex-husband to pay her roughly $15,000. Her ex claimed he stopped having sex with her because he was too tired & had health problems. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 20:49

TIL that zircon crystals help scientists date the Earth because their uranium atoms slowly turn into lead over billions of years. The oldest zircons, found in Australia, are over 4 billion years old. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 17:49

TIL in 2010 a teenager, who began by bartering an old cell phone on Craigslist with the goal of scoring a dirt bike, ended up continuing to trade up in a series of 14 swaps over 2 years. It eventually ended with him trading a 1975 Ford Bronco (considered a collectible) for a 2000 Porsche Boxster S. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 16:49

TIL that in 1393, a masquerade ball ended in disaster when the drunk brother of King Charles VI, Louis, entered the hall with a torch and ignited the costumes of four nobles, killing them. The ball was meant to cheer up King Charles, who had recently suffered a severe episode of madness. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 14:49

TIL that in 2018, the Japanese minister Yoshitaka Sakurada admitted that he had never used a computer in his life... even though he was in charge of the country's cybersecurity at the time. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 13:49

TIL that Roman Emperor Nero held the first recorded same-sex marriage in human history. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 09:49

TIL that if your turn signal is clicking on your dash faster than usual it means that side has a faulty blinker. It is called hyper flashing [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 07:49

TIL roly pollies (aka pill bugs or woodlouses) aren't insects but are instead crustaceans. They're closely related to lobsters and crabs, so they have gills that have adapted to extract oxygen from air instead of water. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 05:49

TIL that AI models like ChatGPT don’t understand language like a real mind does. They predict the next word based on patterns in data. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 03:49

TIL that after seeing the prehistoric cave paintings at Lascaux, France, Picasso said, "We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 02:49

TIL that in October 2017, 170 people in Madagascar were killed and thousands were infected by the Black Death in the largest modern outbreak of the plague. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 23:49

TIL the original Fallout 1 & 2 source code was believed to have been destroyed (preventing official re-releases), but a developer secretly defied orders and preserved it. The code still exists today but can't be released without Bethesda's approval. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 19:49

TIL that the current Crown Princess of Norway was born into a poor family and had a convicted felon as a father. She also has a son from a previous relationship who is a serial sex offender. Her public approval rating as of 2024 is low with only 27% of Norwegians approving of her as future queen. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 18:49

TIL In 1964, Australia proposed annexing the country of Nauru, relocating the population to Curtis Island (a much larger island), and giving all the people Australian citizenship. Nauru refused. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 17:49

TIL While the Wright Brothers flew in 1903, Gustave Whitehead claims to have flown in 1901. The Smithsonian signed an agreement with the Wright estate that if they acknowledge any flight before the Wright brothers, the Smithsonian loses the Wright Flyer. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 21:49

TIL that no hurricane/tropical cyclone has ever crossed the equator [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 18:49

TIL Ulysses S. Grant would include two groomsmen in his wedding: James Longstreet and Cadmus Wilcox. Seventeen years later, General Longstreet and General Wilcox would surrender to General Grant at Appomattox, ending the American Civil War. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 17:49

TIL After his fall from power, Cesare Borgia died while besieging a small castle in Navarre: He was chasing a party of knights in the early morning under heavy rain and fell into an ambush. He was stabbed 25 times, indicating that he attempted to take on the ambushers on his own [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 16:49

TIL that the world's oldest and most prestigious nanny school, Norland College in England, trains nannies in self defense and evasive driving as well as more traditional childcare skills. Jokingly described as "Mary Poppins meets James Bond", some graduates go on to earn six figures. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 13:49

TIL that Frederick Taylor is the father The Open Plan Office Layout. Inspired by factory floor designs, this layout involved crowding workers together in a large, open space, with managers often observing from private offices to improve efficiency. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 11:49

TIL that the city of Harran, the city Dying Light set in, was a real city founded by Sumerians and their worship of Sumerian Moon God Sin survived til 11th century despite being the capital of several Islamic kingdoms. The city is largely abandoned after mongol conquest until 20th century. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 09:49

TIL that during the American Civil War, Army chaplain Thomas Mooney baptized a cannon before being immediately removed from service [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 06:49

TIL that the poem Catullus 16 was considered so obscene that it's English translation was not fully published until the 20th century, nearly 2000 years after it's creation. The poem starts out saying "Pēdīcābō ego vōs et irrumābō" or in English, "I will sodomize you and face-fuck you" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 04:49

TIL After 9/11, the Maasai tribe of Kenya gave 14 of their most important cattle to America as aid. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 02:49

TIL that we humans have no sensors to detect low levels of oxygen unlike in movies where people gasp in oxygen depleted environments. Three seafarer were in killed in a chain locker room in a ship and the oxygen was depleted because of rust. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

26 июля 2025 00:49

TIL of the 69 emperors of the unified Roman Empire, from Augustus (14 CE) to Theodosius (395 CE), 43 emperors suffered violent death, that is 62%, died either by assassination (the most common mode of death), suicide or during combat with a foreign enemy of Rome. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 22:49

TIL in 2011 th German government found itself €55 billion richer after a discovery of an accounting error at Hypo Real Estate, the troubled bank it nationalised in 2009 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 19:49

TIL Speculation as to "who shot J.R.?" on the TV show "Dallas" in 1980 was so intense that former President Ford tried to get the answer out of one of the producers, and the Queen Mother tried to pry it out of actor Larry Hagman while he was visiting the UK, neither of which were successful. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 17:49

TIL that when scientists put a hamster wheel out in the woods, different types of animals seemed to enjoy running on it, including mice, rats, snails, and frogs [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 июля 2025 16:49

TIL the book Progress and Poverty by the economist Henry George, now largely forgotten, was once more widely read than any book except the Bible and was praised by Churchill, Einstein, Tolstoy and others [Source]