Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 09:49

TIL Simpsons creator Matt Groening was born to Homer and Marge Groening (neé Wiggum) and two of his siblings are called Maggie and Lisa. His grandfather is Abram A. Groening [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 05:49

TIL about Terry Wallis, who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state following a 1984 car accident, suddenly spoke “Mom” on June 11, 2003, making him the longest documented coma‑like recovery with regained consciousness [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 03:49

TIL that Catholic communion wafers (the Eucharist) are not permitted to come in gluten free varieties via decree from Pope Francis [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 01:49

TIL the difference between Putt-Putt and mini golf: Putt-Putt courses have basic, minimalist designs with a strict par 2 on each hole. Mini golf courses are more tricky and elaborate, so the holes have pars up to 6. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 00:49

TIL the owner of the WTC argued that the 9-11 attacks were 2 separate occurrences, and so therefore based on the contract terms, he deserved twice the insurance payout - the courts partially agreed and 9 of the 20 insurers had to pay double [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 20:49

TIL of parasitic castration, a strategy of parasites, where the host's ability to reproduce is destroyed by the parasite, to its benefit [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 19:49

TIL that the first journalist to report the outbreak of the Second World War was a rookie British reporter on her very first week on the job. While travelling along the German–Polish border, she spotted thousands of troops, tanks, and artillery massed for invasion. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 18:49

TIL that natural gas is actually odorless, and the smell we associate with it was invented in the 1970s by British engineer Peter Hansen. He was asked to create the "nastiest smell" possible so people could detect gas leaks. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 16:49

TIL sweet baked beans (like Bush’s) originate from Native Americans [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 14:49

TIL Alexander Fleming on discovering penicillin was quoted as saying: “When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I suppose that was exactly what I did.” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 12:49

TIL ancient Greeks before the pre-classical era condoned piracy as a viable profession. It was widespread and "regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 10:49

TIL the American food corporation General Mills had an engineering division that built surveillance balloons that spied on Eastern Bloc countries, and built a deep-sea submersible that surveyed the Titanic wreck and helped recover a hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean Ocean. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 09:49

TIL Michael Jordan earned $300 million in 2024, which topped the $260 million Cristiano Ronaldo earned last year as the world’s highest-paid active athlete. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 04:49

TIL by embracing a low-cost production model & taking less money upfront, executive producers Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, & Charlie Day were given a "sizable ownership stake" in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. By 2011, through just 7 seasons, the trio's stake was already worth close to $60m. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 03:49

TIL of the Mississippi Miracle. In 2013, Mississippi students were performing a full grade level below the national average. After a complete overhaul of their educational program, including rejection of the Whole Language literacy method, Mississippi is now a half-grade ahead of the average student [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 06:49

TIL that the abandoned Central State Hospital, formerly known as the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum, is surrounded by 25,000 unmarked graves [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 04:49

TIL in 1967, Singapore experienced a mass panic over shrinking genitals; hundreds of men ran to hospitals convinced their penises were retracting into their bodies due to “genital retraction syndrome” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 03:49

TIL a French serial killer (Henri D. Landru) was exposed because he always bought round-trip train tickets for himself but only one-way tickets for the women he murdered [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 01:49

TIL that in 2010 McDonald's recalled 12 million radioactive Shrek drinking glasses that were painted with dangerous levels of Cadmium. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 00:49

TIL that Ryan Gosling was fired from The Lovely Bones after gaining 60 pounds for the role by drinking melted Häagen-Dazs ice cream. He had envisioned the character as overweight, but the director disagreed, leading to his dismissal. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 20:49

TIL Céline Dion, along with her husband, filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against the Quebec tabloid Allô Vedettes, which claimed that the couple paid $5,001 to rent the swimming pool of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas so that Dion could sunbathe topless and Angélil could go skinny dipping. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 18:49

TIL The Beatles stopped playing live shows in 1966, primarily because they couldn’t hear themselves over their fans. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 17:49

TIL Marco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, preceded him in China and meeting Kublai Khan by several years. Because of this early voyage, Marco did not meet his father or uncle until he was fifteen years old. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 15:49

TIL that Sweden recently moved the entire mining town of Kiruna a few miles east, because the local iron mine started encroaching under the town. All historic buildings were moved, piece by piece, to their new locations. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 13:49

TIL that during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, NBC cut out the tribute to the London 7/7 bombing victims [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 11:49

TIL a Hollywood executive once wanted Harriet Tubman to be played by Julia Roberts because “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference’” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 09:49

TIL that Australia has forced gambling companies to display slogans in their ads like “You win some. You lose more” and “What's gambling really costing you?” instead of the standard “Gamble Responsibly” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 05:49

TIL deaf britians and deaf americans can't understand eachothers' signs [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 03:49

TIL a stray dog followed Dion Leonard, who was running in a week-long ultramarathon in the Gobi Desert, for 77 miles of the 155-mile race. At night the dog even started to join him in his tent. He named her Gobi, & after the race, he crowdfunded the £5K needed to bring her back to Scotland with him. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 July 2025 02:49

TIL about “Christine”, a mysterious person who repeatedly calls hairdressers across New Zealand and Australia and sets up appointments, which are always no-shows. “Christine” asks the hairdresser to describe, in great detail, various scenarios involving women getting their hair shaved or styled. [Source]