Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 03:49

TIL of Lyodura, a brain surgery material that, unknown to the buyers, was tissue harvested by the seller from black market human corpses and carried fatal incurable prion disease. Over 150 people were infected before its ban in 1996 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 01:49

TIL Peter Tosh did not attend Bob Marley's funeral. He didn't attend Marley's funeral because the Rastafari faith doesn't practice mourning death the way Christians do and, instead, they celebrate life. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 21:49

TIL that the famous British composer Benjamin Britten was known for maintaining close personal friendships with the adolescent singers he cast in most of his operas, including sharing baths, kisses, and beds with them. Despite this, all of "Britten's Boys" categorically deny any form of abuse. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 18:49

TIL Orange Chicken was invented at a Hawaiian Panda Express in 1987. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 17:49

TIL that despite more than 30,000 dying in the Battle of Waterloo and being buried in mass graves on the battleground, only two complete skeletons have ever been found there. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 16:49

TIL that during World War 1, Belgian pilot Willy Coppens came under fire from an enemy observation balloon. In response, he landed his plane on top of the balloon and turned off his engine. When the balloon descended, he slid off and flew away. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 13:49

TIL about Masanobu Tsuji, an Imperial Japanese WWII Army officer who helped plan enough campaigns that he was nicknamed the “God of Strategy”. A known cannibal, he evaded war crime trials, briefly became a politician, worked with the CIA, before finally mysteriously vanishing in Laos in 1961. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 11:49

TIL Darryl McCauley was responsible for defrauding his half-brother, Dane Cook (Celebrity Comedian). Dane Cook hired Darryl as a business manager and he stole at least 12 million dollars from Dane. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 09:49

TIL that Dippin Dots, the popular ice cream snack commonly found in stadiums, arenas, and theme parks, was originally created as cryogenically frozen cow feed. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 04:49

TIL that a sunfish in a Japanese aquarium became so lonely after the aquarium closed to visitors for renovations that it stopped eating. Only after staff placed photos of people’s faces near its tank did the sunfish perk up and start eating again [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 01:49

TIL that Brad Pitt has a younger brother named Doug who is a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Tanzania [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 22:49

TIL that Ken Allen, an orangutan at the San Diego Zoo, became famous for his many successful escapes. During his escapes, he would peacefully stroll around the zoo looking at other animals. He never acted aggressively toward patrons, but would throw rocks at Otis, another orangutan he “despised” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 20:49

TIL that in 2019, American actor Charles Levin, aged 70, died after his car got stuck in unmaintained wilderness road in Oregon. After trying to free it, he left the car in search of help and fell to his death down a 30-foot (9 m) embankment. The body of his dog, Boo Bear, was found inside the car. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 18:49

TIL that Arnold Schwarzenegger had an older brother named Meinhard, who was killed in a car crash in 1971, while driving drunk. The brothers each have a son named Patrick Schwarzenegger. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 17:49

TIL: Roughly one in five U.S. workplace deaths occur at construction sites [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 02:49

TIL research has shown that some forms of cognitive stimulation like video games being played by seniors may delay or slow the onset of degenerative neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 23:49

TIL that the Washington Monument is topped with an aluminum cap. When it was installed (1884), it cost roughly the same per ounce as silver and was considered a precious metal. Within 2 years, a new refining process developed that dropped the metal's price from $4.86/lb in 1886 to $0.78/lb in 1893 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 19:49

TIL that military submarines are typically designed to operate in depths about 3 to 4 times their length [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 17:49

TIL Beavers can chew underwater without getting water in their lungs, thanks to a special flap at the back of their mouths. They have clear membranes over their eyes that help them to see underwater, like goggles. They can also hold their breath for up to 20 minutes. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 16:49

TIL the Greek Navy has a fully operational replica of an ancient galley (Trireme). It is in active duty, the only one of its kind in the world. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 14:49

TIL that marathons in the US from 1975-2004 caused 26 deaths of runners, but road closures for those marathons prevented an estimated 46 deaths from automobile accidents [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 12:49

TIL about the 2017 United Express passenger removal incident, where four paying customers were selected to be involuntarily deplaned. One passenger was injured when he was physically assaulted. It led to USDOT rules that protect passengers from removal or denial of boarding after check-in. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 11:49

TIL that Australian convicted criminal, gang member and author Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read refused a liver transplant, saying, "I'm 55-years-old; I'm not going to put my name down against some 10-year-old kid." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 08:49

TIL At age 23 philosopher and former child prodigy Pico Della Mirandola wrote 900 theses on religion, philosophy etc, and challenged everyone to a public debate in Rome. He died mysteriously at 31 after he decided to become a monk and renounced his former work, persuaded by his friend, Savonarola [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 03:49

TIL that Judaism has a roughly 2500-year-old prayer for using the bathroom in which you thank God for giving you the right number of orifices and not sealing them or making new ones [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 00:49

TIL that since it's discovery in 1930, Pluto has still yet to complete a full orbit around the sun, and will only do so by 2178. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 21:49

TIL that the “He Who Has No Life” character that terrorizes the South Park children in the episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” was based on video game project manager Joey Ray Hall [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 18:49

TIL that, in the first printed attestation of orangutans in western sources, Malays claimed the ape could talk but preferred not to “lest he be compelled to labour” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 18:49

TIL the Wife of Actor Anthony Perkins (Psycho) Tragically Passed in the September 11 attacks, as a Passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 17:49

TIL that in 1999, 11-year old Mitchell Schop wrote to his favorite band, Cake, and asked if they would play his Bar Mitzvah. After Schop sang his favorite song of theirs to the band over the phone, Cake agreed and made Schop's party the first stop on their 1999 world tour [Source]