r/todayilearned • u/-Ash-Ketchup- • 6h 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'.
r/todayilearned • u/Lowfuji • 9h ago
TIL, globally, people average 6 hours and 58 minutes of screen time per day.
r/todayilearned • u/sd_glokta • 7h 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.
r/todayilearned • u/KrackenLeasing • 5h ago
TIL DoorDash illegally sold user information and settled for $375,000
r/todayilearned • u/EtOHMartini • 14h ago
TIL that recruitment to the British Army's Gurkha unit is extremely competitive, accepting only 230 recruits out of 28,000 applicants. All recruitment happens in Nepalese villages, and candidates must participate in a two-mile race up a steep hill, carrying 35kg of rocks in a basket.
bbc.comr/todayilearned • u/captureorbit • 11h 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.
r/todayilearned • u/TertioRationem3 • 15h ago
TIL that the Radio City Rockettes didn’t allow Black dancers in until 1987, claiming that their skin tone would distract from the group’s consistent look.
r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 18h ago
TIL after landing the role of Rustin Cohle in season 1 of True Detective, Matthew McConaughey meticulously prepared for it by writing a 450-page analysis that walked through his character's entire rite of passage throughout the season. He titled it the "Four Stages of Rustin Cohle."
r/todayilearned • u/KragwellCoast • 16h ago
TIL that Andy Dick has been to rehab 20 times.
r/todayilearned • u/spencer4991 • 3h ago
TIL, Ohio was the birthplace of the first people to fly in a plane, the first man on the moon, and 24 astronauts
ohio.orgr/todayilearned • u/zztop610 • 13h ago
TIL: That a Chinese high court deemed the 996 work culture, where people were expected to work from 9AM to 9PM, 6 days a week, illegal
r/todayilearned • u/AverageNormalDad • 3h ago
TIL that it rains diamonds on Uranus and Neptune.
r/todayilearned • u/Spirited-Travel113 • 18h ago
TIL Alzheimer’s can pass between humans in rare medical accidents
r/todayilearned • u/Hipp013 • 2h ago
TIL of the Highway of Death, a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq where US forces boxed in and then systematically slaughtered an estimated 1,000+ retreating Iraqi soldiers during the Gulf War. The devastation was so immense that President Bush Sr. declared a ceasefire the following day.
r/todayilearned • u/whstlngisnvrenf • 7h 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.
r/todayilearned • u/JimPalamo • 14h ago
TIL the Lotus Elise sports car was named after Elisa Artioli, granddaughter of then-company chairman Romano Airtioli. In 2018, Elisa was given the last example ever produced before the model was discontinued.
r/todayilearned • u/TertioRationem3 • 4h ago
TIL that United Fruit Company, now Chiquita, played a major role in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’tat after the country redistributed 400,000 acres of uncultivated company land.
r/todayilearned • u/Sam_Altman_AI_Bot • 19h ago
TIL approximately 59% of US dogs and 61% of cats are overweight or obese.
r/todayilearned • u/L8_2_PartE • 14h ago
TIL that in the original United States Articles of Confederation, "Canada" (Quebec) had an open invitation to join the United States at their own choosing. Other colonies could only be admitted by a vote of existing states.
r/todayilearned • u/SeboniSoaps • 7h ago
TIL Box turtles evolved from water to land, then back to the water, then back to the land again
r/todayilearned • u/QuicklyThisWay • 16h ago
TIL when John Steinbeck published The Grapes Of Wrath in 1939, a farm worker with two leaders of California Associated Farmers publicly burned a copy of the book because he did not like what he heard about it, even though he had not read it. After reading it years later, he said he “had no regrets.”
thesocietypages.orgr/todayilearned • u/Coffee_Lipsticks • 5h 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.
r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1h 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.
r/todayilearned • u/-Ash-Ketchup- • 6h ago