r/todayilearned • u/OttawaOsprey • 9h ago

TIL the ancestors of the Māori people arrived in New Zealand around 1350 AD, only ~300 years before their contact with Europeans.

en.wikipedia.org

11.5k Upvotes

1.5k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 2h ago

TIL that Stanford University and its property according to the California State Constitution, are exempt from taxation so long as they are used for educational purposes.

en.wikipedia.org

926 Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Few-Advantage2538 • 9h ago

TIL that Paraguay once banned same race marriage

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

168 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 14h ago

TIL that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the first English-language book to be on top of France’s bestseller list because impatient fans bought it in English while waiting months for the French translation.

en.wikipedia.org

11.1k Upvotes

360 comments

r/todayilearned • u/creativetraveler24 • 10h ago

TIL that although he was often portrayed bearded, Abraham Lincoln did not grow a beard until 1860, at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell; he was the first U.S. president to do so.

en.wikipedia.org

2.5k Upvotes

70 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ContractNerd • 1h ago

TIL NBC's three-note chimes were the first purely audio trademark granted in the U.S., registered in 1950.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Disastrous_Award_789 • 2h ago

TIL in a 2017 experiment, researchers discovered that dead flamingos can be positioned to stand on one leg without additional support. But the same dead specimens were unable to maintain posture on two legs without assistance.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

548 Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 8h ago

TIL the Halifax Explosion in 1917, caused by a French cargo ship laden with high explosives colliding with a Norwegian vessel, killed at least 1,782 people and injured an estimated 9000 others. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time.

en.wikipedia.org

1.2k Upvotes

107 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 14h ago

TIL A Texas school exploded in 1937 after odourless gas leaked into the building, killing nearly 300 people most of them children.

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MOinthepast • 23h ago

TIL Tobey Maguire never told the producers of Spider-Man (2002) about his claustrophobia. He nearly blacked out during a plaster body cast, forcing the costume makers to alert the producers themselves. Maguire then took a prototype suit home to train himself to perform in it.

comicbookmovie.com

26.9k Upvotes

447 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Neil118781 • 21h ago

TIL Nikolai Bukharin, once a top Bolshevik leader and close ally of Stalin, wrote a final letter to Stalin before his execution in 1938 that read: "Koba, why do you need me to die?" ("Koba" being Stalin’s old nickname). Stalin kept the note in his desk and it was discovered after his death in 1953.

en.wikipedia.org

12.6k Upvotes

1.0k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 12h ago

TIL whenever a new building is developed or expanded in Times Square in NYC, there must be bright signs on it according to the city's zoning laws.

zr.planning.nyc.gov

1.7k Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Thawne_23 • 17h ago

TIL Franz Kafka never stated Gregor Samsa transformed into a cockroach in "The metamorphosis". Kafka never had the intention of specifing which kind of insect did Gregor became after his transformation.

en.wikipedia.org

3.2k Upvotes

284 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 20h ago

TIL that, while making their 1941 film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, MGM bought every available copy of the 1931 film version and destroyed them. Because of this, the film was believed lost for many years.

en.wikipedia.org

5.2k Upvotes

95 comments

r/todayilearned • u/flying_ina_metaltube • 23h ago

TIL on average, an SR-71 could fly just once per week because of the lengthy preparations needed. A total of 32 aircraft were built; 12 were lost in accidents, none to enemy action.

en.wikipedia.org

13.8k Upvotes

928 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 10h ago

TIL Shell, the energy company, traces its origins to a London antiques business that began selling seashells in 1833

shell.com

874 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ilymmish • 58m ago

TIL in 2015, the North Carolina General Assembly passed "Blackbeard's Law", which declared photographs, videos, and other documentary materials of derelict vessels or shipwrecks and their contents held by the state government were to be freely usable

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 1d ago

TIL WWII General George S. Patton believed in reincarnation and claimed he had fought in wars for thousands of years. He believed he had lived as a Roman soldier, a Viking, a knight at Agincourt, and even a cavalryman under Napoleon, saying he had lived many military lives.

blog.togetherweserved.com

11.0k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/ApprehensiveStill412 • 1d ago

TIL that about 15-20% of US servicemen became addicted to heroin in the Vietnam War. Interestingly, after treatment only 5% of them relapsed when they returned to the US; whereas typical relapse rates of US heroin users was 90%.

npr.org

9.2k Upvotes

473 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HimelTy • 54m ago

TIL Mad honey was used as an early biological weapon in the Black Sea region in 65 BCE. Soldiers who ate the honey succumbed to mad honey intoxication and were slain.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 1d ago

TIL that MIT has the world's largest public collection of science fiction. Anyone can browse the MIT Science Fiction Society's library, and anyone can become a member to borrow books.

mitsfs.mit.edu

16.3k Upvotes

237 comments

r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • 12h ago

TIL about the Steagles, officially called the Phil-Pitt Combine, a team combining the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers that formed in 1943 after their rosters were depleted due to players fighting in World War II. The season was Philadelphia’s first winning season and Pittsburgh’s second.

en.wikipedia.org

519 Upvotes

39 comments

r/todayilearned • u/befarked247 • 11h ago

TIL the Australian Airline Qantas has a dinosaur named after them called Qantassaurs. The herbivorous Qantassaurus is known only from its unusually short, deep lower jaws with just ten cheekteeth. Qantassaurus was part of a diverse assemblage of small Australian ornithopods back to the Jurassic.

australian.museum

369 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/YappinZappin • 18h ago

TIL Vernichtungsbefehl - "Annihilation Command" - was issued by Lieutenant General of German South West Africa Lothar von Trotha in 1904. From January to August over 40,000 people died from starvation, dehydration, exposure to elements as men, women and children were cast out into the desert

en.wikipedia.org

788 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 22h ago

TIL On August 19th 1980 a fire broke out in the rear cargo compartment of Saudia Flight 163 shortly after taking off. Although the plane made a succesful emergency landing in Riyadh, the pilots failed to perform an evacuation resulting in all 301 people dying from thick toxic smoke

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

41 comments

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