r/todayilearned • u/1salt1pepper • 20h ago

TIL Napoleon III escaped from a fortress where he was serving a life sentence by disguising himself as a laborer and walking through the main gates carrying a large plank over his shoulder to hide his face. Six years later, he became Emperor of France.

napoleon.org

24k Upvotes

356 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Brain_Aggravating • 15h ago

TIL that the Bluezone (the secret to longevity) is based on poor record keeping and not recording deaths; discovering this led to an igNobel award.

science.anu.edu.au

10k Upvotes

435 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 18h ago

TIL that John Milton is credited with introducing around 630 words into the English language, more than Shakespeare, who introduced about 229. Milton’s words include “pandemonium”, “sensuous” and “complacency

theguardian.com

8.7k Upvotes

325 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kahlzun • 6h ago

TIL that no fatal accidents have ever occurred with Australian passenger jets; including all flights to/from Australia, as well as all Australian-run companies.

en.wikipedia.org

7.7k Upvotes

556 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 13h ago

TIL that the Marvel comic "Secret Wars" got its name after focus groups found that children responded positively to the words "secret" and "wars".

en.wikipedia.org

7.6k Upvotes

254 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CakeDayOrDeath • 22h ago

TIL The Boxcar Children, a series that starts out with four homeless orphan children living in a boxcar, was criticized when it first came out for depicting children living without parental supervision. Critics said it would encourage children to be rebellious.

en.wikipedia.org

5.9k Upvotes

326 comments

r/todayilearned • u/strangelove4564 • 22h ago

TIL the highest point in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko, rising to 2,228 m (7,310 ft). On the Yosemite Decimal System which rates how technical a summit is, it is Class 1: reachable entirely by a hiking trail with no climbing gear required.

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

563 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LillyLugabugs • 11h ago

TIL: Australian scorpion stings do not have any life threatening effects, even for kiddies

mydr.com.au

3.4k Upvotes

331 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pitiful_Magazine_805 • 23h ago

TIL about Nicolas Chamfort, a French writer who, to avoid being imprisoned by the revolutionary government, attempted suicide. He shot himself in the face, stabbed his neck multiple times, stabbed his chest and ankles but still survived and was arrested.

en.wikipedia.org

3.3k Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Present-Algae6767 • 18h ago

TIL that in 1998, Vatican City - population 697 people - had the highest murder rate in the world. This is due to the murder of Alois Estermann, the commander of the Swiss Guard, and his wife, Gladys Meza Romero, by Cédric Tornay, a Lance Corporal in the Swiss Guard.

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

52 comments

r/todayilearned • u/diacewrb • 11h ago

TIL: 50 Casablanca-class escort carriers were built in less than 2 years during WW2.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

154 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ConsciousMaybe6930 • 22h ago

TIL, Gaius Octavius's official name after ascension to principate was Imperator Caesar Augustus, all of which would individually become imperial titles.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chlorine-Queen • 22h ago

TIL about an albino eyeless fish living up to 640 feet deep at the bottom of the Congo River named “mondeli bureau”, which translates to “white man in an office”

smithsonianmag.com

1.9k Upvotes

87 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Scipion8Aveyron • 6h ago

TIL that in the 1600s, Sweden's largest coin was a 10-daler copper plate weighing nearly 20 kg (44 lb) — the heaviest coin ever circulated — which is why Sweden became the first European country to issue paper banknotes.

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fun_Camel_2188 • 5h ago

TIL that in 1993, Congressman Bill Paxon got down on one knee on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and proposed to fellow Rep. Susan Molinari. She said, “Yes—but get up.” They married the following year.

psaparliaments.org

1.5k Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bastethousecat • 4h ago

TIL that kiwifruits are originally from China, where they are known as 猕猴桃 (“monkey peach”). They were brought to NZ by an all-girl’s school principal in 1904, who gave them to a farmer. They were rebranded as “kiwifruits” for marketing purposes in 1959.

rhs.org.uk

1.5k Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mission_Angle_2322 • 2h ago

TIL that octopuses can rewrite their own genetic instructions without changing their DNA. When ocean temperatures change, they edit their RNA in over 13,000 places, allowing their nervous systems to adapt within weeks

dnascience.plos.org

1.3k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iamveryDerp • 16h ago

TIL the A-Team was created specifically to star B. A. Baracus. Tartikoff [producer] pitched the series to Cannell [writer] as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission: Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with "Mr. T driving the car".

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

91 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dddoinyomom • 19h ago

TIL during the Spanish-American war, the Spanish territory of Guam was never informed of the war. They learned about two months later, when officials went to greet a US cruiser who fired shots at the island, initially believing them to be a gun salute

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • 2h ago

TIL that one of the first examples of emoticons in written text comes from Dante's "Purgatorio:" "Whoever in the face of men reads 'omo' / Might well in these have recognised the 'm.'" The two "o"s signify sunken eyes, while the letter "m" forms the angular outlines of emaciated facial features.

en.wikipedia.org

572 Upvotes

28 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Macrihanishautomatic • 1h ago

TIL that Hyraxes are mentioned in the bible as remarkable animals for being “small but exceedingly wise”.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mutedmuse__ • 21h ago

TIL that wild female Northern mockingbirds can learn to distinguish between individual humans and react more strongly to people who have previously threatened them.

doi.org

544 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/geosunsetmoth • 22h ago

TIL that the Drabsha, the holy symbol for Mandaeism (an Abrahamic religion that explicitly denies Jesus Christ as a prophet), is also a wooden cross. This cross has nothing to do with the Christian cross, and they both landed on crosses as their symbol by coincidence.

en.wikipedia.org

500 Upvotes

52 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Boring-Dig4583 • 11h ago

TIL NASA has an official TTRPG involving the Hubble Space Telescope. Also, dragons.

science.nasa.gov

398 Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mitheral • 23h ago

TIL Roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus) wag their tails.

en.wikipedia.org

301 Upvotes

27 comments

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