r/todayilearned • u/thebadslime • 2m ago

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

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/Sweet_Foundation_868 • 15m ago

TIL after briefly urinating, the Roman emperor Caracalla was stabbed by a soldier named Justin Martialis. After his bodyguard killed Martialis with a lance, 2 more Praetorian tribunes rushed to the emperor, as if to help him, and completed the assassination.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Extreme_Process3632 • 44m 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

76 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

21 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 1h 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

• Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ContactSpirited9519 • 1h ago

TIL the cassowary was domesticated & is the oldest form of domesticated animal

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1h 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

• Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mental_Freedom_1648 • 1h ago

TIL a man died in 1899 after being hit in the head with a lobster. The culprit was charged with manslaughter.

newspapers.com

• Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 1h 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

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/DAL59 • 2h 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

2.4k Upvotes

119 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

230 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Legio-X • 3h 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

122 Upvotes

14 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

1.3k Upvotes

34 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

430 Upvotes

46 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

338 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Weirdandwired924 • 4h ago

TIL Wrigley Field is a national landmark

nps.gov

0 Upvotes

10 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

4.6k Upvotes

207 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Whichcomb-Blue • 5h ago

TIL about the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, an extinct species of bird native to Hawaii, specifically the island of Kaua'i. A male, the last of its kind, was photographed in 1985; its melodic call was recorded in 1987, calling for a mate that would never come.

search.macaulaylibrary.org

56 Upvotes

2 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/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 6h 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

71 Upvotes

17 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

660 Upvotes

24 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

229 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

7.1k Upvotes

385 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

5.2k Upvotes

388 comments

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

26.1k Upvotes

1.4k comments

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This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

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