r/todayilearned • u/Unleashtheducks • 15h ago
TIL The first person clinically diagnosed with Autism is still alive. Donald Grey Triplett who is 89 years old.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/jamescookenotthatone • 4h ago
TIL In October 1809 Friedrich Staps attempted to assassinate Napoleon but was captured. Napoleon himself interrogated the would be assassin. On the possibility of being pardoned Staps said, ‘I would notwithstanding seize the first opportunity of taking your life.’ and he was executed on the 17th.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/TotesNotaBot0010101 • 1h ago
TIL in 1972 Don Rickles mocked mobster Joe Gallo onstage and after the show Gallo invited Rickles to Umbertos Clam House, to which he declined. A firefight erupted at Umbertos later that night, killing Gallo.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/OvidPerl • 8h ago
TIL: Thanks to poor internal communication at NASA, information about a spacesuit water leak wasn't properly communicated. Later, Astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowned on a July, 2013 ISS space walk, his helmet filling with several liters of water before they could get him back inside.
abcnews.go.comr/todayilearned • u/TenF • 15h ago
TIL the phrase "pulling out all the stops" is derived from pipe organs, which have many levers called 'stops' which allow the organist to control the volume and timbre of different pipes. Pulling out all the stops would result in the loudest, most comprehensive sound.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/darw1nf1sh • 6h ago
TIL, the placenta that forms with a fetus isn't created by the mother. It grows from the fertilized egg and some fetuses actually develop outside the uterus attached to the intestines in the body cavity.
ncbi.nlm.nih.govr/todayilearned • u/Bigtsez • 19h ago
TIL that Slash, guitarist of Guns N' Roses, helped fund the dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (see "project funding")
si.edur/todayilearned • u/DDChristi • 2h ago
TIL about the Angel Makers of Nagyrév. A group of women who killed at least 50-300 people(depends on your source). In the early stages it was to save women from abusive husbands.
news.bbc.co.ukr/todayilearned • u/floof_mcgenius • 1d ago
TIL: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drained Niagra Falls in 1969. It ended up attracting more visitors than any other feat attempted at the falls. The engineers wanted to find a way to remove the unseemly boulders that had piled up at its base since 1931, cutting the height of the falls in half...
smithsonianmag.comr/todayilearned • u/VeryPoliteRaccoon • 2h ago
TIL US & UK shoe sizes is based on the size of a Barleycorn!
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/TheMadIrishman327 • 1d ago
TIL that Liza Minelli, daughter of Judy Garland, the actress who played Dorothy in the 1939 MGM film, “Wizard of Oz,” was once married to Jack Haley, Jr., son of Jack Haley, the actor who played the Tin Man in the same film. He was Minnelli’s 2nd husband.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/AporiaParadox • 50m ago
TIL that the Adventures of Pinocchio was originally published in weekly instalments in an Italian Children's magazine. It was cancelled after 15 chapters, but due to popular demand from readers the series returned and was given a proper conclusion. The stories were then collected as a novel in 1883.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/hopefulmonstr • 2h ago
TIL NYC's Triborough (RKF) Bridge's Manhattan terminus was routed 25 extra blocks uptown so William Randolph Hearst could sell unwanted land to the city
perell.comr/todayilearned • u/MorsOmnibusCommunis • 1h ago
TIL of the Bolvano Train Disaster which claimed the lives of more than 500 people in 1944. After the train became stalled in a tunnel, the passengers and crew succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning when the locomotives attempted to continue and filled the tunnel with smoke.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/samx3i • 16h ago
TIL the popular Halloween song "Monster Mash" is a parody of "Mashed Potato Time" by Dee Dee Sharp, released months earlier
billboard.comr/todayilearned • u/TheLady208 • 12h ago
TIL: Under the Federal Housing Act (FHA) in the US, it is possible for people with disabilities to terminate a lease if the place of living is making their condition worse and there are no other reasonable accommodations to be made.
hud.govr/todayilearned • u/ElderCunningham • 1h ago
TIL the first parody movie was 1905's The Little Train Robbery, a parody of 1903's The Great Train Robbery. Both were directed by Edwin S. Porter
acinemahistory.comr/todayilearned • u/Scruffy_Nerf_Hoarder • 14h ago
TIL that a German Leopard tank's aiming system is so precise that it can balance a beer glass on its barrel while driving.
taskandpurpose.comr/todayilearned • u/mikey_croatia • 19h ago
TIL most blind people with no perception of light experience continual circadian desynchrony
ncbi.nlm.nih.govr/todayilearned • u/jbug808 • 13h ago
TIL That in the last two years of his life, Marlon Brando had several patents issued in his name from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, all of which involve a method of tensioning drumheads.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/It_Matters_More • 1d ago
TIL: Actor Tony Danza (peak fame in the 80s) was briefly a professional boxer. He went 9-3 with 7 KOs (5 in the 1st round).
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/blockpapi • 12h ago
TIL that even though elephants have 10 times more body cells than humans, they’re still less likely to get cancer.
science.orgr/todayilearned • u/IanGecko • 22h ago