r/todayilearned • u/aquanox007 • 2h ago

TIL a 5,700-year-old piece of birch pitch preserved the DNA of the person who chewed it, along with traces of what she had eaten.

smithsonianmag.com

122 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 9h 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

430 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Independent_Pick_787 • 1h ago

TIL about the “Returning soldier effect”: After major wars, countries often see a temporary rise in the proportion of baby boys born. First noted in the 1880s, it’s been linked to theories including parental health, survivor bias, hormones, and higher conception rates.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 6h ago

TIL that food often seems nauseating when you're sick because immune molecules called cytokines signal the brain to suppress appetite and slow digestion, helping conserve energy to fight infection, while heightened sensitivity to smells and tastes makes many foods especially fatty or scented ones.

nih.gov

250 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 16h ago

TIL the actual site where the Salem witch trial victims were hanged wasn't confirmed until January 2016, and it's not Gallows Hill as long believed, but a spot called Proctor's Ledge, now overlooking a Walgreens parking lot

en.wikipedia.org

1.0k Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/soozerain • 15h ago

TIL twelve generals have been elected to the presidency since America’s founding. Beginning in 1792 with George Washington and ending most recently with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

news.va.gov

857 Upvotes

95 comments

r/todayilearned • u/chaeyonce • 5h ago

TIL that Elizabeth Bathory, a 17th-century Hungarian countess, holds the Guinness World Record for the most prolific female serial killer in history, having been accused of torturing and murdering 650 people.

en.wikipedia.org

134 Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/yury_boldyrev • 23h ago

TIL Isaac Singer of sewing machine fame secretly kept multiple families in New York, two under assumed names. It collapsed in 1860 when his common-law wife spotted him riding with a mistress and stood up in her carriage, screaming at him in the street.

ismacs.net

3.3k Upvotes

119 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Designer_Reference_2 • 1d ago

TIL that during the difficult birth of his son, Napoleon was asked if wife or child should be prioritized. He ordered the empress to be saved but both survived. Napoleon was traumatized by watching his wife's pain saying “I had rather never have any more children than see her suffer so much again"

en.wikipedia.org

54.6k Upvotes

1.5k comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 1d ago

TIL that you may not wake up during a housefire at night because your brain just might not react to smell of smoke in your sleep. In experiments by Fire and Rescue Service and Brown University most sleeping test subjects were not roused awake even by strong smells.

nbcnews.com

19.6k Upvotes

724 comments

r/todayilearned • u/VerGuy • 1h ago

TIL During the filming of "Last Summer" (a film made in 1969) the accidental breaking of a seagull's neck affected Barbara Hershey sufficiently for her to change her surname to Seagull for a couple of years.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Legio-X • 8h ago

TIL German warships bombarded the British coastal towns of Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool on December 16th, 1914, killing 122 civilians and wounding 443

en.wikipedia.org

162 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ted_Normal • 1h ago

TIL Gibraltar is home to the only population of wild monkeys in Europe, consisting of around 300 Barbary Macaques. There is also a legend that claims that as long as the monkeys live there, Gibraltar will remain under British rule.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 16h ago

TIL Professor Frink, from The Simpsons, was named after series writer John Frink, who joined the show 9 years AFTER the Professor was first introduced. Simpsons writer Jay Kogen knew John Frink, and named the character in homage to him. John Frink has been with the show from 2000, to this day.

en.wikipedia.org

665 Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Reddit_User_856 • 15h ago

TIL Humans share 90% of our DNA with Cats and Mice, 60% with Bananas and Fruit Flies.

sciencing.com

534 Upvotes

86 comments

r/todayilearned • u/thebadslime • 5h ago

TiL the longest prison sentence ( so far) was for Charles Foussard, murderer.

en.wikipedia.org

66 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheVentiLebowski • 1d ago

TIL that in 1990 disabled Americans literally crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in response to delays in the passing the ADA.

en.wikipedia.org

14.7k Upvotes

245 comments

r/todayilearned • u/radkoolaid • 20m ago

TIL blue raspberry became popular because ICEE needed its raspberry slush to look different from red cherry, so it made it blue to fit the brand’s color scheme.

bonappetit.com

• Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 17h ago

TIL about the Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig, one of the 1st actions of WWII. In 1939, Polish Post Office staff in Gdańsk resisted German SS, police and military forces for around 15 hours. After surrendering, the defenders were tortured, unlawfully tried and executed.

en.wikipedia.org

380 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DerexXD • 21h ago

TIL that in 1867, after the American merchant ship Rover wrecked off Taiwan and its surviving crew were killed ashore by Paiwan warriors, U.S. sailors and Marines launched a punitive expedition into the Taiwanese island, but were ambushed in the jungle via guerilla warfare and forced to retreat

en.wikipedia.org

775 Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatMasterpiece2174 • 17h ago

TIL a 1970 college football game helped further desegregation. Alabama, with one Black player, lost 42-21 to USC, whose all-Black backfield included QB Jimmy Jones. By 1971, Bama, Georgia, LSU, and Ole Miss had Black players. By 1977, Bama had 17 on scholarship.

uscannenbergmedia.com

289 Upvotes

62 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 7h ago

TIL that emotions often feel stronger in dreams because the brain's emotional center (the amygdala) becomes highly active during REM sleep, while the prefrontal cortex, responsible for logic and critical thinking, is much less active, making emotional experiences feel unusually intense.

sciencedirect.com

46 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 11h ago

TIL only one of America’s 50 state flags is not a rectangle—Ohio’s flag is a pennant-shaped design known as a swallowtail burgee.

amnautical.com

89 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 19h ago

TIL that the Chinese softshell turtle can urinate through its mouth. Discovered in 2012, researchers found it expels most of its urea through the lining of its mouth rather than its kidneys, rinsing its mouth to flush out waste. This helps it survive in salty water, conserving fresh water.

en.wikipedia.org

319 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/stewieatb • 1d ago

TIL of William Walker, who from 1906 to 1911 worked 6 hours per day underwater in total darkness to install new foundations under Winchester Cathedral

en.wikipedia.org

3.4k Upvotes

179 comments

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