Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 13:49

TILL About Unity Milford. A UK socialite born in Swastika, Ontario she was such a virulent anti-semite and an admirer of Hitler that she attempted suicide upon the UK's declaration of war on Germany in 1939. The botched attempt left her partially incapacitated until her death in 1948. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 12:49

TIL that Spirytus Rektyfikowany, a Polish rectified spirit with 96% alcohol by volume, is one of the strongest commercially available alcoholic drinks in the world. It’s so potent it’s banned in several countries. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 10:49

TIL that the plane known as "Gimli Glider," that glided without fuel from 41,000ft to a successful emergency landing, was only retired in 2008, nearly 25 years after the incident. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 05:49

TIL that astronauts Mark Lee and Jan Davis married in secret 9 months before their joint flight to the ISS and didn't tell NASA until it was too late to train replacements. They are the only married couple to have ever flown in space together. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 04:49

TIL the Chinese Communist Party encouraged Yao Ming’s parents to reproduce as part of a program to create incredibly tall athletes [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 🎓

19 June 2025 12:49

TIL about John Doe No. 24, an black teen who was found wandering the streets in 1945. As he was deaf, and seemingly incapable of otherwise communicating, police were unable to identify him, and sent him various mental institutions until his death in 1993. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 12:49

TIL that cracking your knuckles doesn’t cause arthritis. The sound comes from harmless gas bubbles popping. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 09:49

TIL Class of 2025 is the largest graduating high school class in American history. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 June 2025 05:49

TIL that Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss put his firstborn child, a girl, up for adoption as he was too poor to raise her at the time and never mentioned her to his six other children. The woman eventually connected with her birth family in 2018 and wrote a book about the experience. [Source]

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]