Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 08:49

TIL in 2014 Ben Affleck was banned for life from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas after he was caught on camera counting cards at a high rollers table. He was told by security that he was "too good" and had been deemed an advantage blackjack player. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 05:49

TIL that the demand for Ozempic is so great that it has boosted Denmark's entire economy [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 03:49

TIL When Mary, Queen of Scots was executed, her little dog was found hiding under her dress. It had stayed with her the whole time, loyal until the very end. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 01:49

TIL Napoleon Dynamite actor Efren Ramirez sent a cease and desist letter to his brother Carlos after finding out that he had been impersonating his character Pedro at parties and other events that Efren was too busy to attend, hitting him a 10 million dollar lawsuit had he continued. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 00:49

TIL that actor Michael Rapaport publicly feuded with NBA player Kevin Durant on Twitter, leading to a series of heated exchanges and eventually Rapaport exposing private DMs he received from Durant containing threats and homophobic and misogynistic slurs. [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 🎓

23 June 2025 07:49

TIL Doris “Dorie” Miller was the first Black American awarded the Navy Cross. A mess attendant during Pearl Harbor, without training he manned an anti-aircraft gun without training and carried wounded sailors to safety, becoming a WWII hero. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 04:49

TIL in 2024 the Canadian town of Drumheller attempted to set the world record for the largest gathering of people in inflatable dinosaur costumes. Their attempted was disqualified because more people than expected showed up and they lost count at 3000. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 03:49

TIL that “blowing from a gun” was a brutal execution method where victims were tied to a cannon’s muzzle and fired upon. Beyond death, it denied burial rites, making it both a physical and spiritual punishment. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 June 2025 01:49

TIL a New York man was arrested for keeping seven live sharks in a pool in his basement. [Source]

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]