r/todayilearned • u/NegativeBee • 3h ago
TIL Thomas Jefferson was so impressed by macaroni and cheese during a visit to Paris that he wrote down the recipe and instructions on pasta extrusion, imported a pasta maker, macaroni, Parmesan, and made it at his home. He served it at a state dinner in 1802.
8.8k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/ComfortableTrash5372 • 5h ago
TIL Willie Nelson smoked weed at the White House with Jimmy Carter’s son
8.6k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/tom275bo • 10h ago
TIL in 1996, a 21-year-old man burst into a New Zealand radio station, took the manager hostage and demanded that Kermit the Frog's rendition of Rainbow Connection be played.
20.3k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/jdward01 • 7h ago
TIL that Walt Disney World began as "The Florida Project". Dummy corporations were used, by Walt Disney Productions, to buy up 27,000 acres of land to avoid bursts of land speculation in the Orlando area. Early rumors assumed possible development by NASA, Ford, the Rockefellers, and Howard Hughes.
2.2k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/autumn-knight • 10h ago
TIL William Bligh was not only overthrown as Governor of New South Wales in Australia’s only military coup but was previously overthrown as Captain in the famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty.
3.0k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TheHorrorJunkie • 14h ago
TIL a special law in the UK was created to ensure that the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital will forever be able to collect royalties from stage performances, audiobooks, book releases, etc. of Peter Pan in the UK. This is the only work with an 'exception' to copyright laws.
5.5k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/iambeno • 2h ago
TIL - The miscarriage rate is higher than people perceive. On average 12.5% of women who know the are pregnant have a miscarriage within the first 23 weeks of pregnancy.
573 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/dakp15 • 20h ago
TIL about the Davy Crockett - a tripod mounted gun developed by the US during the Cold War. It fired a tactical nuclear warhead with a range of up to 4 miles and a yield that caused fatal radiation within a radius of a quarter of mile
27.5k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/SuperCrappyFuntime • 19h ago
TIL In 2012, a solar Coronal Mass Ejection that might have taken the world 4 to 10 years to recover from missed Earth by about 9 days
18.8k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Themakia • 8h ago
TIL the milky way was named as such because of Hera's breaskmilk...An infant Hercules tried to nurse from her, and she threw him off. Allowing some milk to splash and creating the galaxy and all its stars...
998 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/IAmTiborius • 12h ago
TIL that when former White House press secretary James Brady died in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide because it was ultimately caused by a gunshot wound he sustained in 1981, during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan
1.8k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/racc15 • 10h ago
TIL about William Duell, a criminal, who was hanged in 1740. His body was sent to be dissected for medical purposes. However, he started breathing and was revived by the staff. His sentence was commuted, and he was exiled to North America where he died at an old age.
en.wikipedia.org1.4k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/WonderWmn212 • 17h ago
TIL Margaret Knight (1838-1914) invented a machine to mass produce flat-bottomed paper bags and, after winning a lawsuit against a fraudster who copied her design, the patent was issued in 1871. Her first invention was when she was 12 years old (and began working in a factory). She had 87 patents.
3.2k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/temporarysecretary17 • 23h ago
TIL about Def Jam Rapstar, a 2010 rap karaoke game that caused its developers to be sued for 8 million dollars because it did not get the rights to the songs in the game.
7.9k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Pfeffer_Prinz • 4h ago
TIL in the 1920s, Coco Chanel accidentally got a tan, and helped inspire the trend of sunbathing. Soon "sunlight therapy" was prescribed for almost every ailment from fatigue to tuberculosis. Before this, tanned skin was associated with the lower classes who work outside, and fair skin was revered.
182 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/jamescookenotthatone • 9h ago
TIL Since 2018 all new cars sold in the United States and Canada have had to include a backup camera. The first mass production car to include a backup camera was the Toyota Soarer in 1991, though concept cars such as the 1956 Buick Centurion had the feature aswell.
494 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/WonderfulWanderer777 • 5h ago
TIL that Kurt Cobain got the inspiration to make Nirvana's famous song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" when Kathleen Hanna, the singer of the band "Bikini Kill" wrote "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on a board. Teen Spirit was a woman's deodorant and he didn't knew it until he was done with the song.
172 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/morerubberstamps • 6h ago
TIL over the course of his 23 published adventures, Herge's Tintin was knocked unconscious 43 times. Between 1929 and 1973, he was hit with a rake, a brick, a whisky bottle, an oar, a giant apple, a camel femur, a block of ice, and countless punches and clubs.
172 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/GeoJono • 1d ago
TIL Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony was initially his tribute to Napoleon, whom he admired. But when Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven angrily declared that Napoleon had become a tyrant, and he erased Bonaparte's name from the score’s title page.
popularbeethoven.com7.8k Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/KodyBerns99 • 10h ago
TIL that the world's largest snowflake on record measured 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. It fell in Fort Keogh, Montana in 1887 and was reported to be "larger than milk pans."
304 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/iamasinglepotassium • 7h ago
TIL That There's a Bible Belt In The Netherlands
179 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/archfapper • 4h ago
TIL that after Leon Czolgosz was executed for assassinating US Pres. William McKinley, the prison warden poured sulfuric acid on the corpse, burned his belongings, and refused to turn over the body to Leon's brother. This was to prevent exhibitions of his life
102 Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/arrogant_ambassador • 17h ago
TIL that William Daniels, famous for playing Mr. Feeney on "Boy Meets World," has been married to to actress and fellow Emmy Award winner Bonnie Bartlett since June 30, 1951; at more than 71 years, it is the longest active Hollywood marriage as of today.
1.0k Upvotes