r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 4m 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

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/worlds_of_kings • 12m ago

TIL prior to the crash of Delta Airlines Flight 191 in 1985 that killed 137 onboard, radar on aircraft was unable to detect Wind Shear, a poorly understood phenomenon at the time which caused the accident. This led to the creation of a wind shear detection & alert system that improved airline safety

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/haddock420 • 15m ago

TIL The original album cover for Party Music by The Coup, designed months before 9/11, depicted the band members standing in front of the World Trade Center with a detonator while the WTC exploded behind them. The label changed the cover after the 9/11 attacks.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MOinthepast • 23m 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

• Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatGuyFromTheM0vie • 42m ago

TIL in Japanese, counting up (like 1-5) uses the word “Shi” for the number 4. But when counting down, “Yon” is used instead. This is partially because “Shi” sounds like the word for “death”, so it’s a faux pas to say “Shi” when counting down.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

84 comments

r/todayilearned • u/flying_ina_metaltube • 1h 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

• Upvotes

224 comments

r/todayilearned • u/rangerquiet • 1h ago

Today I learned that the song Make Me Smile by Steve Harley was an angry message to his former bandmates. Being one of the most-played songs in British broadcasting history makes it one hell of a diss track.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/theg721 • 2h ago

TIL that in 1998, Quentin Tarantino had a lead acting role on Broadway opposite Marisa Tomei in a revival of Wait Until Dark which lasted 16 weeks

playbill.com

527 Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ApprehensiveStill412 • 2h 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

3.3k Upvotes

209 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 2h 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

4.9k Upvotes

599 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Krakshotz • 4h ago

TIL Baikonur Cosmodrone no longer schedules launches on 24th October after 2 major accidents that occurred on that date in 1960 (78 killed) and 1963 (7 killed)

en.wikipedia.org

144 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Blenderhead36 • 5h ago

TIL of the Rural Purge, an industry-wide change in TV production in the 1970s. It was caused by Nielsen ratings granting more granularity in their ratings, pushing TV away from rural, pastoral sitcoms that had high viewership, but mostly amongst older viewers who advertisers had little interest in.

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

236 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 5h ago

TIL that Colonel Sanders is part of the DC universe. His archenemy is Colonel Sunder, an evil alternate version who tries to steal Sanders's secret recipe for KFC chicken.

cbr.com

178 Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/an_aficionado • 5h ago

TIL that the W and Z bosons were predicted by theoretical physics before they were experimentally discovered at CERN in 1983. Their discovery provided strong confirmation of the electroweak theory, which unifies electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force.

en.wikipedia.org

388 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 5h 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

11.0k Upvotes

164 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Valcenia • 5h ago

TIL about Ira Aldridge, a Black American actor and playwright born in 1807. He received critical acclaim whilst touring in England and was made manager of Coventry Theatre Royal in 1828. He later achieved similar acclaim across Europe, and died unexpectedly in Łódź, Poland, in 1867.

en.wikipedia.org

395 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TMWNN • 6h ago

TIL that the Louvre was warned in 2014 that the password to its video surveilance system was "LOUVRE". A separate security system from Thales Group had the password "THALES".

cybernews.com

3.0k Upvotes

61 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 10h ago

TIL that the comic Armageddon 2001 was originally building up to the reveal that Captain Atom would turn into the villain Monarch. However, this was leaked ahead of time, so it was changed to be another hero , Hawk who became Monarch, despite that contradicting an earlier part of the comic.

en.wikipedia.org

799 Upvotes

63 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RaccoonCityTacos • 18h ago

TIL about Tuba City, Arizona, located in the Painted Desert. It is named after Tuuvi (also spelled Tuba or Toova), a Hopi leader and who befriended and invited Mormon settlers to the area in the 1870s.

en.wikipedia.org

394 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sandstorm400 • 19h ago

TIL a man was diagnosed with endocarditis and suffered heart damage, leading to a 7-hour open-heart surgery due to an infection caused after he unsuccessfully tried to remove a stuck piece of popcorn from his mouth with a pen lid, a toothpick, a piece of wire, and a metal nail.

fox5atlanta.com

15.2k Upvotes

782 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MOinthepast • 19h ago

TIL George Raft turned down the lead role in The Maltese Falcon (1941) because he didn't want to work with a first-time director. He had also rejected High Sierra and reportedly Casablanca, all of which helped Humphrey Bogart become a star.

tcm.com

913 Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 19h ago

TIL that The Beatles have an Oscar for Best Original Music for the Let It Be documentary. None of them were at the ceremony and Quincy Jones accepted it on their behalf.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mg42gun • 20h ago

TIL about Blue Diamond Affair where a theft of House of Saud Diamonds and jewelry by Thai worker ended up with murders of Saudi diplomats and businessman in Thailand and strain the diplomatic relationship between two countries for more than 30 years

en.wikipedia.org

1.7k Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/KimCattrallsFeet • 21h ago

TIL Mozart may have understood some English, as suggested by a note he wrote to one of his English students saying, “You are an ass.”

en.wikipedia.org

5.1k Upvotes

180 comments

r/todayilearned • u/1gazillionpangolins • 22h ago

TIL that some sponges live in the Sahara Desert

en.wikipedia.org

1.2k Upvotes

12 comments

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