Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 23:49

TIL of Hanns Scharff, a WWII German interrogator who never used torture, later moved to the US and designed the mosaic inside Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 22:49

TIL that before ever getting involved with politics, Abraham Lincoln had worked as a farmhand, ferryboat operator, store clerk, and surveyor [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 21:49

TIL the nose of Japan’s bullet train was redesigned after a kingfisher’s beak to stop tunnel sonic booms [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 20:49

TIL of Deli Mike, an Airbus A340 with frequent electrical problems—one of which was once solved allegedly by patting its faulty instrument door panel and asking "what happened to you, big man?" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 19:49

TIL The Cone Snail, fairly common, is among the most venomous creatures on earth [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 17:49

TIL over 99% of Warren Buffett’s net worth was accumulated after he was 65 years old [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 15:49

TIL That supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell met Cuban president Fidel Castro in 1998, after Moss sent him a letter [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 14:49

TIL studies of the archives of the "office of the night", a government office tasked with prosecuting homosexuality in Renaissance Florence, reveals that in a city of 40,000 inhabitants a whopping 16,000 men were implicated in sodomy accusations, although only around 3k cases ended up in convictions [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 06:49

TIL that it’s not only okay to eat kiwi skin, it’s really healthy, and can help with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)! [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 05:49

TIL less than 10% of all plastic has ever actually been recycled [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 02:49

TIL Marine Duane Dewey was being treated by a navy corpsman in Korea after a grenade exploded at his feet, when another grenade landed near them. Dewey immediately smothered it shouting "Doc, I got it in my hip pocket!" Dewey survived & won the Medal of Honor for saving the corpsman's life & others. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 00:49

TIL sun exposure may cause skin cancer, but it also lowers overall mortality rates, including from cancer [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 June 2025 21:49

TIL Today I learned that soft bristled toothbrushes can be more abrasive to enamel than hard-bristled ones. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 June 2025 21:49

TIL after Britain's defeat in the American Revolution, King George III seriously considered abdicating the throne and retiring to Germany. He was talked out of it shortly before delivering a speech on abdication. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 June 2025 17:49

TIL that atomic clocks are so precise that the most accurate ones won't lose a second for over 30 billion years — longer than the age of the universe. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 23:49

TIL the German “ß” has no historical connection with the Greek “β” or the Gothic “𐌱”, but the Germans tried to abolish it too [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 22:49

TIL The original Jungle Gym was originally designed to help children comprehend the 4th dimension as a tesseract by an eccentric British mathematician. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 21:49

TIL That in 2009 the BBC introduced a nominally children's TV show call Horrible Histories based on the popular book of the same name. It told irreverent stories from Western History back to the Stone Age. It became a sleeper adult hit and ran for over 70 episodes. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 20:49

TIL One cause of the 1988 crash of Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 was the captain's recent use of cocaine. The crash killed both pilots and 7 of the plane's 15 passengers. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 17:49

TIL the FBI has undercover Cessna that have tech to mimic a nearby cell tower and force everyone’s phone in the area to connect to it, allowing them to listen to calls, see texts and all data . [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 16:49

TIL "Barney & Friends" creator Sheryl Leach's son, Patrick, who inspired her to create Barney, is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for shooting his neighbor. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 15:49

TIL of David Kelly, a British weapons expert. Two days after being publicly named as the source behind a BBC report questioning the UK government's claim about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, Kelly committed suicide a short walk from his home. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 12:49

TIL an endocrinologist irradiated the testicles of Oregon and Washington prisoners. He gave them $5/mo, and $100 when they had to receive a vasectomy upon conclusion of the trial. The surgeon said it was necessary to "keep from contaminating the general population with radiation-induced mutants" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 05:49

TIL United States, under President Eisenhower, initiated Iran's nuclear program through the Atoms for Peace program. In 1957, the U.S. provided Iran with its first nuclear reactor and nuclear fuel. Later, after 1967, the U.S. also supplied Iran with weapons-grade enriched uranium. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 04:49

TIL that the idea of donkeys being for democrats came after Andrew Jackson’s opponents called him a jack**s [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 02:49

TIL: 'Let's Get It Started' by the Black Eyed Peas was originally titled 'Lets Get Retarded' with lyrics to match [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 June 2025 00:49

TIL Spiders can fly using electricity in the air (a process called ballooning). They can release silk threads that catch an electric field, which then interacts with the Earth's electric field, providing lift and propulsion. This allows them to travel long distances, even across oceans. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 June 2025 21:49

TIL that standing underneath a tree during a storm is the second leading cause of lightning strike deaths [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 June 2025 20:49

TIL China's first email to the internet was sent in 1987, with the message: 'Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner of the world.' This was 11 years before the development of the Great Firewall of China began. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 June 2025 16:49

TIL that the Saudi dinasty, which unified Arabia and named the country after them, had to fight two other major dinasties over the control of Arabia, the Rashidis and the Hashemites, the Rashidis do not exist anymore but the Hashemites are kings of modern day Jordan [Source]