Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 21:49

TIL that because people with epilepsy are rarely schizophrenic and vice-versa, Ladislas J. von Meduna started inducing epileptic seizures in schizophrenic people to treat the disease. His first tests of convulsive therapy resulted in the first cure for catatonia and led to the development of ECT. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 20:49

TIL of Fordlândia, Henry Ford's failed rubber utopia in the Amazon jungle. In the 1920s, the colony was home to hundreds of workers living a mandatory alcohol-free "healthy lifestyle," including square-dances, poetry readings, and golf, but ended up totally abandoned after riots and crop failure. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 19:49

TIL about the Jabulani, the official ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Due to it's unpredictable behaviour when traveling through the air, the ball was widely criticized by both goalkeepers and strikers, with Brazilian goalkeeper Júlio César comparing it to a "supermarket" ball [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 17:50

TIL Anna Marie Jarvis who created "Mother's Day" then resented the commercialization of the holiday, picketed flower & card sales then tried to organize campaigns to abolish the holiday leaving her penniless and was committed to an insane asylum partly paid by flower & card companies to keep her. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 16:49

TIL California’s Salton Sea was accidentally created in 1905 when a canal breach flooded a desert sink 86m below sea level. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 14:49

TIL the Guardian newspaper ran a dating site for over 15 years [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 11:49

TIL About ,Meher Baba observed total silence for over 44 years (1925–1969), believing true communication went beyond words. He used hand gestures and an alphabet board, famously saying, “I have come not to teach but to awaken.” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 09:49

TIL a man in Arizona stole a diamond worth $160,000 and traded it for $20 worth of weed [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 05:49

TIL that in the 1980s East Germany tried to resolve a major coffee shortage by building coffee-production infrastructure in Vietnam, its close ally. By the time any coffee was harvested, East Germany had ceased to exist. Meanwhile, today Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 09:49

TIL, it's estimated that by 2100 the Maldives will be completely under water. Their governments response to this, is relocating to India [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 07:49

TIL of Eddie Slovik. Court-martialed for desertion in WWII, he is the only US soldier to be executed for purely military offenses since the Civil War. He said he deserted because prison was better than combat, and anticipated a light sentence. He was executed to deter others from thinking similarly. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 05:49

TIL In 1927 Italy, Giulio Canella, a M.I.A. soldier from WW1, was "found" alive in an asylum and reunited with his "family." But a court later found he was not Canella but Mario Bruneri, a wanted criminal. Canella's widow continued living with the man and insisted he was her husband until her death. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 02:49

Til the first human pig hybrids were developed in 2017. They were 1/10000th human [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 01:49

TIL that a British POW escaped a Nazi camp in WWII by disguising himself as a German officer, biking across enemy territory, and making it back to England—the first to escape Colditz Castle. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 23:49

TIL: The Church of Scientology is considered a vexacious litigant by the United States Court of Appeals. "Plaintiffs (Scientologists) have abused the federal court system by using it, inter alia, to attempt to destroy their opponents, rather than to resolve an actual dispute [over legal matters]" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 21:49

TIL that since the 19th century the average human body temperature has decreased by as much as 1 degree F° [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 20:49

TIL about Sargeant Gander, a Newfoundland dog that fought alongside Canadian troops in the Battle of Hong Kong. He saved several wounded soldiers when he grabbed grenade thrown into their midst and ran towards the enemy with it. He was awarded the doggy equivalent of the Victoria Cross. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 18:49

TIL that a survey revealed that 56% of Americans said that Arabic Numerals should not be taught in school.For context:Arabic numerals are the numbers that we currently use in all fields of math. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 16:49

TIL that in 1983 a term was coined for worker ants of certain species that can have children but are not queens, derived from γάμος (gámos) and ἐργάτης (ergátēs), the term in english is ‘Gamergate’. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 15:49

TIL that,in 2016,someone posted several billboards in Inverness,Florida,USA, that were to remind men not to SA their own daughters while drunk. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 12:49

TIL that before secret ballots were introduced in 1872, the UK kept publicly-available 'poll books' for each election which recorded how each man voted. This information was not only used by politicians to identify swing voters, but also by bosses and landlords to influence their employees/tenants. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 10:49

TIL in 1995 convicted murderers Daniel Luther Heiss & Shane Baker escaped from prison after Heiss discovered the key printed on the prisoners' information handbook was the master key to the entire prison. Baker had jewelry-making equipment in his cell & made a copy of the key. Both were recaptured. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 08:49

TIL the linguistically closest relative to Malagasy, spoken in Madagascar, is Ma'anyan, spoked on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. It has been suggested the early Malagasy migrants moved away from Borneo in the 7th century AD, based on linguistic markets [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 July 2025 04:49

TIL that George Thorgood's 8 minute version of "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" is actually two John Lee Hooker songs stitched together [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 07:49

TIL: After Chris Benoit's double murder and suicide in 2007, doctors found that his brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient at only age 40, thus explaining his erratic behavior and mental state [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 06:49

TIL the first country to outlaw slavery was France in 1315. Slavery was legal in Dubai til the 60s and in Mauritania til 1981. It persists globally for human labor and sex trafficking. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 03:49

TIL in 2023 a Canadian judge dismissed a case of criminal harassment against a man and ruled that: "Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 July 2025 02:49

TIL The US Marine Corps and the Dept of the Navy allowed thousands of people to drink contaminated water at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base Camp over the course of decades. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 23:49

TIL the first settlers of Madagascar hunted the local megafauna into extinction and demolished the islands' forest ecosystem, turning it into barren grasslands [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 July 2025 22:49

TIL that in 1694, the Parliament of England banned smoking in the House of Commons chamber and committee rooms. To replace smoking, MPs were offered snuff from a special Parliamentary Snuff Box. This is still stocked today. The current box is made from timber salvaged after the WWII bombing. [Source]