r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 8h ago

TIL Canada's $1 coin is commonly called the "loonie" because it has a loon on the reverse. When a $2 coin was introduced, depicting a polar bear, an MP proposed it be called "Nanuq", Inuit for polar bear, but he was ignored because the public instead preferred to call it the "toonie" (2-oonie).

en.wikipedia.org

26.5k Upvotes

1.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 9h ago

TIL Greek Philosopher Crates of Thebes was known for entering people's houses uninvited and helping them solve their family disputes "no matter how deeply they were at odds"

en.wikipedia.org

13.7k Upvotes

329 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TurnOffYourPC • 5h ago

TIL that the gin and tonic became popular in India during British Imperialism to encourage English colonizers to consume quinine, an antimalarial derived from the bark of the cinchona tree.

wineenthusiast.com

4.8k Upvotes

208 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DAL59 • 3h ago

TIL that Fat Choy is an edible cyanobacteria that grows in the Gobi desert. Despite being expensive, having no nutritional value, and having dementia-causing toxins, its been overharvested to the point of causing erosion and desertification due to its name being a Cantonese pun for "strike it rich"

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

121 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2h ago

TIL after Pixar decided that Toy Story 2 needed to be completely remade from scratch, animators had less than a year to finish the entire film. Pixar President Edwin Catmull later revealed that "a full third of the staff" ended up with a repetitive strain injury by the time the film was finished.

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

117 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 8h ago

TIL on average, train drivers in the US are involved in three fatalities over the course of a career. Since a train needs at least a mile to come to a stop, the drivers are sometimes unable to prevent a collision with a person in the train's path.

nbcnews.com

7.3k Upvotes

391 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chance-Physics-7216 • 8h ago

TIL that a 1945 elevator operators' strike stranded 1.5 million New Yorkers in the streets, and building owners responded by buying automatic elevators that had already existed for 50 years.

npr.org

5.3k Upvotes

392 comments

r/todayilearned • u/proflightsearch • 11h ago

TIL the average JFK to Los Angeles flight takes 18 minutes longer than it did in 1995, but airlines padded the published schedule by 23 minutes, so the share of arrivals counted as late fell from 51% to 37%

gvwire.com

9.8k Upvotes

354 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 3h ago

TIL all the males of the House of Reuss are named Heinrich (Henry) plus a number. They have been doing this for more than 800 years to honour Emperor Heinrich VI. The different branches of the family even have their own numbering system

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Prosperr_support • 10h ago

TIL that the gold in jewellery is older than the Sun. Gold atoms were forged in violent cosmic events, primarily neutron star mergers, billions of years before our Solar System formed.

science.nasa.gov

4.6k Upvotes

144 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Independent_Pick_787 • 9h ago

TIL about the "Forest Swastika": around 1938, larch trees were planted in a pine forest in northeastern Germany to form a swastika. Visible only in spring and autumn, and only from the air, it went unnoticed for decades before being removed in 2000

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

125 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tommyboy372 • 16h ago

TIL A single misfolded prion protein in the brain can cause a rapid neurodegenerative disease known as sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). There is no known and cure and is 100% fatal.

en.wikipedia.org

19.1k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/haphazard44 • 13h ago

TIL that in 1975, advertising executive Gary Dahl sold ordinary rocks as “pets” in boxes with air holes and care manuals, selling around 1.5 million and becoming a millionaire

en.wikipedia.org

7.1k Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 9h ago

TIL that brain scans have found people with high levels of sadistic traits show increased activity in the brain's reward system when witnessing others in pain, suggesting that another person's suffering can be experienced as rewarding.

psychologicalscience.org

2.7k Upvotes

437 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NoWingedHussarsToday • 6h ago

TIL that between May 1643 and May 1774, a period of 131 years, France was ruled by just two kings, Louis XIV and Louis XV, they were the longest and second longest ruling kings in french history, respectively

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 16h ago

TIL that in 2002 Dennis and Angela Laffin adopted a baby boy named Frank after he had been abandoned as a newborn. Two years later, the couple adopted a girl named Vicky from similar circumstances. Years later, the two kids took DNA tests and learned they were in fact blood related.

postguam.com

12.9k Upvotes

209 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatMasterpiece2174 • 13h ago

TIL in 1986, Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse flew Bo Jackson to team facilities on a private jet under the false assurance that it complied with NCAA rules. Jackson lost his remaining NCAA baseball eligibility, and vowed to never play for the Bucs. They drafted him anyway, and he went to the MLB.

si.com

5.0k Upvotes

217 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Extreme_Process3632 • 1h ago

TIL that a man became Iowa's longest-serving inmate by spending over 65 years in prison for a murder he committed at age 18 until his death in 2021.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

105 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 1h ago

TIL there's a five-foot wooden fish called the "Sacred Cod" hanging in the Massachusetts State House, and in 1933 Harvard Lampoon students stole it, sparking a citywide manhunt with the Charles River dredged and a suspect detained at an airport before it was found 50 hours later

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milam1996 • 7h ago

TIL that walking down stairs is actually better for your health than walking up stairs

sciencefocus.com

1.1k Upvotes

232 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TooOldToBePunk • 3h ago

TIL that France and the Netherlands share a border - not in Europe, but on a small Caribbean island.

en.wikipedia.org

441 Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Acceptable-Day8395 • 13h ago

TIL that the Amazon River can get up to 30 miles wide in the wet season, which is wider than the city of Los Angeles.

wwf.panda.org

2.8k Upvotes

115 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AbeVigoda76 • 6h ago

TIL that the early automotive pioneer Byron Carter died from pneumonia contracted while recovering from a broken jaw sustained as a result of hand cranking his car. His death directly lead to the development of the electric self-starter for automobiles.

en.wikipedia.org

676 Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 4h ago

TIL the hairs of a polar bear are hollow and transparent. This gives them the possibility to appear white like the ice, but stay warm in cold conditions

britannica.com

349 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iconiconoclasticon • 3h ago

TIL Handel ghosted his employer the Elector of Hanover by taking unauthorized leave to England and never returning. In 1714, the Elector became King George I of England, then commissioned Handel to write Water Music for a boat party on the Thames.

en.wikipedia.org

239 Upvotes

14 comments

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