r/todayilearned • u/adirtysociaIist- • 15m ago

TIL that enigmas is an anagram for Gamines. In the letter to Epstien that read "Enigmas never age" It really means "Gamines never age, have you noticed that?" A Gamine is a young, playful and teasing girl.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sundvl13 • 30m ago

TIL the oldest known physical flag in the world is the Derafsh-e-Shahdad (or Standard of Shahdad), it is a bronze flag with a simurgh (mythical bird) dating back to 2,400 B.C.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/UltimateOreo • 40m ago

TIL that in 2003, MIT scientists unveiled a biological weapons detector funded by the U.S. military that hijacked living white blood cells, genetically engineering them to glow when they encountered deadly pathogens like anthrax.

news.mit.edu

• Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/villanoXI • 57m ago

TIL That Loreena McKennitt is Canadian.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/A_W_Z_2 • 1h ago

TIL failed Operation Kiebitz, during WW2 Nazis planned to rescue 4 skilled U-Boat commanders held in Canada POWs camp with a U-Boat, canadians became aware of the plan and laid trap to capture the U-Boat.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OccludedFug • 3h ago

TIL that the pink plastic flamingo is the official bird of Madison Wisconsin.

en.wikipedia.org

448 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/beasterne7 • 5h ago

TIL in crowd wisdom, the 'surprisingly popular' answer can overcome ignorance of the masses

princeton.edu

2.4k Upvotes

111 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheVentiLebowski • 5h ago

Flavoring, not flavor TIL Ambergris Was an Ice Cream Flavor in the 17th Century

tastingtable.com

2.5k Upvotes

154 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 6h ago

TIL in 1948, when Satchel Paige was finally signed to pitch in the Major Leagues, The Sporting News named him Rookie of the Year—at (at least) 42 years old.

mlb.com

629 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Neebez • 8h ago

TIL a finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into transferring $25 million to scammers after joining a video conference call where every single other participant—including the company's CFO and several of his recognized coworkers—was an AI-generated deepfake.

cnn.com

18.9k Upvotes

565 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 9h ago

TIL in Medieval England, a form of football (also called mob football) was played between neighbouring villages/towns. Team sizes were unlimited. The teams had to move an item (for example an animal's bladder) to a particular geographical point, such as their opponents' church.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LakeM0bius_hunter • 10h ago

TIL that the Moon moves about 3.8 centimetres farther away from Earth every year.

science.nasa.gov

142 Upvotes

55 comments

r/todayilearned • u/gelatomancer • 11h ago

TIL Sea Otter Skeletons Can Turn Purple If They Eat Enough Purple Sea Urchins

popsci.com

1.1k Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/QueenOfNZ • 11h ago

TIL that in 2022, a 7-year-old boy, his brother, and their cousin discovered a rare juvenile T. rex fossil in North Dakota. Dubbed "Teen Rex," it is one of only four juvenile T. rex fossils ever found.

cbsnews.com

5.0k Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 19h ago

TIL that before the Black Death in Europe, there was the Plague of Justinian. The plague weakened the Byzantine Empire's economy and caused the empire's decline.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

87 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 20h ago

TIL that the Battle of Big Dry Wash was the last major battle of the Apache War and 4 soldiers earned the Medal of Honor as a result of their actions during the battle.

en.wikipedia.org

252 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 20h ago

TIL that in 2020, Justin Montney lost his fiancée, Alexis-Athena Wyatt, in a car crash. When he attempted to get a refund from the photography company he had hired for their wedding, they not only refused but released a statement mocking him.

people.com

25.1k Upvotes

925 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TapFar687 • 21h ago

TIL of The Law School of Berytus (also known as the law school of Beirut), a center for the study of Roman law in classical antiquity. It flourished under the patronage of the Roman emperors and functioned as the Roman Empire's center of jurisprudence until its destruction in AD 551.

en.wikipedia.org

280 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/thebigchil73 • 21h ago

TIL that the ‘high’ from gambling isn’t connected to winning - the dopamine rush peaks at exactly 50:50 probability. Gamblers get a rush when the roulette wheel is spinning but their pleasure is largely unaffected whether they win or lose.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

8.2k Upvotes

396 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RainyWanderlust • 21h ago

TIL about the “blob” slime mould. It has almost 720 sexes, can heal itself, and has no brain, but is able to transmit knowledge if merged with another blob.

abc.net.au

13.9k Upvotes

706 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Skaterose6 • 23h ago

TIL Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a well-known game-day superstition where he wears the same pair of red underwear for every game of his NFL career.

espn.com

2.4k Upvotes

274 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kevlarbuns • 1d ago

TIL member of the Donner Party, Lewis Keseberg, was accused of killing and consuming multiple, including children, by the rescue party. He was found with the corpse of Tamsen Donner, and had hidden her remaining money. He later sued for defamation, insisting he only ate those who died of exposure.

en.wikipedia.org

8.2k Upvotes

492 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NBrief • 1d ago

TIL Before becoming a country-pop star, Shania Twain performed in a Las Vegas-style show at an Ontario resort, where a music industry lawyer noticed her talent and helped get her demo to Nashville.

nmc.emuseum.com

422 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 1d ago

TIL that the actor Leslie Howard, most famous for playing Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With The Wind" was killed in a plane crash in WWII when his civilian aircraft BOAC Flight 777 was shot down by German aircraft, killing everyone aboard.

en.wikipedia.org

623 Upvotes

36 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PinkiePie___ • 1d ago

TIL John Paul Jones was a war hero active in both US and Russian Navies. He was accused of being a pirate and raping a 10 years old girl. He rejected the rape accusation but claimed instead that he's been often paying her for sex.

en.wikipedia.org

0 Upvotes

14 comments

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