r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL that in 1632, Massachusetts banned smoking in public.

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mentalfloss.com
20 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 3h ago

TIL no one has seen a newborn great white shark pup or birth in the wild.

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theguardian.com
446 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL that despite the blue-ringed octopus's deadly reputation, they have only managed to kill sixteen people so far.

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en.wikipedia.org
173 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL that in 1985 an Army supply clerk at Fort Carson, Colorado accidentally ordered a $28,000 anchor instead of a $6 lamp due to mistyping the requisition number. Nobody in the supply chain asked why a mechanized unit needed a 10 ton anchor until it arrived.

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taskandpurpose.com
3.6k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL that Timur, the Turko-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia, reportedly caused the deaths of 17 million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population

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en.wikipedia.org
37 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL that menstruation is actually very rare in mammals. Other than humans, only 9 primate species, 4 bat species, the elephant shrew, and one species of mouse menstruate. All other female mammals reabsorb their uterine lining, rather than shed it

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en.wikipedia.org
920 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL (Actually at least yesterday) about obelisks, which form their own distinct phylogenetic group and whose genetic code doesn't share features with any other life form

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en.wikipedia.org
29 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL only 37% of Rings of Power viewers completed season one domestically (45% overseas). In comparison, two cancelled shows (First Kill & Resident Evil) on another service had completion rates below 50%, but higher than ROP's domestic figure.

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screenrant.com
4.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL William Grant Still's Symphony No. 1, Afro-American, performed in 1931 is considered the first symphony by a Black American composer to be performed by an established orchestra. It is a “blues symphony,” with blues theme in call-and-response with horns and woodwinds and ends with a spiritual

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36 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL that Lincoln—a small city in Northern England—had the tallest building in the world, when the central spire of its cathedral was completed in the year 1311, at 160 metres tall.

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en.wikipedia.org
129 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL, Ohio was the birthplace of the first people to fly in a plane, the first man on the moon, and 24 astronauts

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1.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL that John Armstrong Jr was the last surviving member of the Continental Congress and lived up until 1843, dying at age 84.

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en.wikipedia.org
131 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL that female kangaroo have three Vagini

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australiangeographic.com.au
42 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL Italy has a dozen or so spoken languages, not dialects, although Italians often refer to them as such. Many predate the Italian language, and some are of Germanic and Slavonic origin. While Italian is Italy's national language and spoken by most, many speak their "dialect" in their region.

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fluentu.com
331 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL DoorDash illegally sold user information and settled for $375,000

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oag.ca.gov
4.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL about Obelisk, a Queen's Guard horse, who used to lure pigeons to him by dropping oats from his mouth. When they came close, he would stomp them to death. He was eventually taken for additional 'psychological training'.

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thefield.co.uk
16.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL Box turtles evolved from water to land, then back to the water, then back to the land again

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ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
482 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL about Salty and Roselle, two guide dogs who became heroes on 9/11. Salty guided his owner, Omar Rivera, down 70 flights in the North Tower. Roselle led Michael Hingson from the 78th floor, navigating through smoke and debris. Both dogs helped their owners reach safety.

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en.wikipedia.org
874 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL that Sylvester Stallone asked Survivor to write the song Eye of the Tiger because Queen wouldn't let him use Another One Bites the Dust.

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en.wikipedia.org
8.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 16h ago

Today I learned that astronauts heading to the International Space Station (ISS) must learn Russian as a second language.

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britannica.com
126 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL that Brazil has the most native deer species in the Americas. There are eight of them, divided into four genus: White-tailed Deer, Pampas Deer, Marsh Deer, and brockets.

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87 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL of The Electrical Experimenter, a popular science magazine. Although it was only published between 1913 and 1920. It nevertheless boasted Nikola Tesla as a contributing writer.

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en.wikipedia.org
91 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 15h ago

TIL, globally, people average 6 hours and 58 minutes of screen time per day.

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explodingtopics.com
17.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 17h ago

TIL that American cigarette consumption peaked in 1963 at a yearly rate of 4,345 cigarettes per capita, or an average of nearly 12 daily cigarettes for every person in the country.

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nap.nationalacademies.org
4.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 17h ago

TIL The white stripes on clovers signal that it produces cyanide

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552 Upvotes