Today I Learned 🎓

25 April 2025 01:49

TIL that when William Penn was granted a land charter by King Charles II in 1670, Penn became the largest non-royal landowner, owning around 45,000 square miles of land. This included land in what is now Pennsylvania and Delaware. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 23:49

TIL Anaxagoras was one of the first to assert that the Moon reflected sunlight and did not produce light by itself; a statement translated as “the sun induces the moon with brightness” was found in his writings. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 20:49

TIL: Diamond engagement rings aren’t an old tradition—they were invented by marketers. In 1938, the diamond company De Beers hired an ad agency to convince people diamonds = love. They launched “A Diamond Is Forever”—a slogan that took off, even though diamonds aren’t rare and are hard to resell. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 17:49

TIL That the man who took the photo used in the original "I want to believe" poster depicted in the X-files claims to be a reincarnation of various prophets including Jesus and Mohammed, and that he has had contact with aliens since he was 5. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 15:49

TIL about the International Fixed Calendar, it is a calendar system that has 13 months each with 28 days. Making the year 364 days long, with an additional holiday at the end of the year to keep seasons from shifting months over time as well as having leap years with 366 days. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 12:49

TIL that in 1720, the House of Savoy traded the rich island of Sicily for the poorer Sardinia under pressure from European powers. Though a downgrade in land, it let them keep their royal title—setting the stage for their descendants to later control all of Italy. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 05:49

TIL Timbaland let OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder keep 100% of the publishing for the remix of the song "Apologize". His manager told Tedder, "He’s not trying to take food off your table. He produced the remix. You wrote the song." Tedder said this decision changed his life by allowing him to buy a home. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 04:49

TIL that despite originating Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, Julie Andrews was passed over for the film version of My Fair Lady in favor of Audrey Hepburn because producer Jack L. Warner wanted “a name.” The next year, Andrews starred in The Sound of Music. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 02:49

TIL that “bloodcurdling” is more than just an expression. Watching horror movies can actually raise levels of a blood-clotting protein. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 23:49

TIL about Slow TV, a Norwegian television genre that broadcasts real-time, unedited footage of ordinary events, such as a 7-hour train journey or a real-time broadcast of wild salmon migrating to spawn. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 22:49

Til that on the island of Svalbard (one of the only places where humans and polar bears live together) you are legally required to carry a equipment to scare polar bears away with you, if you are traveling outside of settlements. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 22:49

TIL: To become King Louis XV's official mistress, Madame du Barry had a fake birth certificate made to hide her humble origin as the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress. The birth certificate claimed her family were nobility and that she was 3 years younger than her actual age. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 20:49

TIL that the Imperial House of Japan is the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world, having been traditionally founded in 660 BC, while the oldest historically-attested evidence of the dynasty dates to 539 AD, which was the start of Emperor Kinmei, who was the 29th Emperor to rule. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 19:49

TIL the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen in 1907 and have never been found. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 16:49

TIL that in 2009, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi publicly called for the dissolution of Switzerland and for its territory to be divided among France, Italy and Germany [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

25 April 2025 00:49

TIL that in the city of Lincoln, IL, a phone booth was installed in the 1960s on the rooftop of City Hall, a 3 story building. Why? Weather watching and reporting. It is still there. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 21:49

TIL that despite Christians being 1% of the Japanese population, there have been 9 Christian prime ministers since 1900 in Japan. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 20:49

TIL In the 1990s, many computers used two-digit years. To prevent systems from reading "00" as 1900 in the year 2000, governments and companies spent billions updating systems. Thanks to these efforts, major failures in banking, flights, and utilities were avoided. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 17:49

TIL that in 2018, the entire Greek football league was suspended after the president of a team stormed the pitch during a match to confront a referee while carrying a gun [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 13:49

TIL in 2019 a man died less than 12 hours after eating a hot fishcake that burned his throat, causing it to swell so much that he choked to death. The doctor who performed the autopsy said the symptoms were normally seen in people involved in house fires, caused by smoke inhalation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 08:49

TIL that Robinson arithmetic is a system of mathematics that is so weak that it can't prove that every number is even or odd. But it's still strong enough to represent all computable functions and is subject to Godel's incompleteness theorems. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 05:49

TIL of the Goler Clan - a group of poor, rural families living in Canada whose lineage showed incest dating back to the 1860s. In 1984, it was discovered that many Goler children experienced physical and sexual torture at the hands of mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, and cousins. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 03:49

TIL Microtransactions accounted for 58% of PC gaming revenue last year [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

24 April 2025 01:49

TIL that the CIA created a gun that could shoot darts causing heart attacks. Upon penetration of the skin, the dart left just a tiny red dot. The poison worked rapidly and denatured quickly, leaving no trace. This weapon was revealed in a 1975 Congressional testimony. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 23:49

TIL that a South Korean actor was abducted by dictator Kim Jong Il to upgrade North Korea's film industry and gain global recognition [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 22:49

TIL about the UK's TV Pickup phenomenon, where the country's power grid would be drained by millions of British people getting up and using small electrical appliances (usually kettles) in between commercial breaks of popular TV shows. This phenomenon is unique to the UK. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 21:49

TIL that Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, loved to collect bugs as a child. Other children would call him “Mr. Bug,” and as a child he wanted to become an entomologist. This childhood pastime went on to inspire aspects of Pokémon. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 20:49

TIL that since 2018 Morocco has a high-speed rail line connecting Tangier and Casablanca with a train that travels up to 320 km/h (199 mph). [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 17:49

TIL the US Post Office issued stamp on 13 May 1918 to mark the first official airmail flight, featuring an image of a “Curtiss Jenny” biplane. A printing error caused the plane to be shown flying upside down. Only one "Inverted Jenny" sheet was printed, making those stamps extremely rare. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 April 2025 15:49

TIL that bears maintain muscle mass during hibernation by recycling urea - the nitrogenous waste normally removed by urination [Source]