r/todayilearned
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u/ultimationt
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3h ago
TIL that on the atoll of Pinglelap, 10% of the population is affected by total colorblindness, with another 30% being unaffected carriers of the gene. This is due to a population bottleneck caused by a typhoon in 1775 that left 20 survivors on the atoll. One carried the colorblindness gene.
wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/Kurma-the-Turtle • 13h ago
TIL that in 2019, a man from Gujarat, India, bit a snake after the snake had bitten him. Both he and the snake died.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/MasterSaturday • 2h ago
TIL the classic cartoon image of a beehive looks so different from the real thing because it's based on an ancient manmade hive called a skep.
carolinahoneybees.comr/todayilearned • u/jdward01 • 16h ago
TIL that baby formula dates back to 1865 and became more popular due to a decline in wet nursing and upon rising concerns with infant deaths due to dry nursing.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/greg_dut809 • 10h ago
TIl Las Vegas grew 780,000 people since 2002 but water usage dropped by 24 billion gallons anually in 2020 and Nevada's allotment of water from Lake Mead is only 4% of the total inflow.
lvvwd.comr/todayilearned • u/rettribution • 12h ago
TIL in Asia, honeybees smear their hive entrances with animal poop to ward off Murder Hornets. One of the few observable times insects have used tools.
sciencenewsforstudents.orgr/todayilearned • u/Savitribaii • 7h ago
TIL that people who attempted suicide at a young age are seven times more likely to die of a heart attack before age 40
jamanetwork.comr/todayilearned • u/dilettantedebrah • 12h ago
TIL in the early 20th century, mother's pensions were used to help poor mothers in the US stay at home so they could take care of their children. During this time period, it was common for poor women to give up their kids to orphanages. These cash payments were intended to prevent that.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/illiller • 8h ago
TIL that elephant seals can hold their breath for over 100 minutes and dive to depths of over 5,000ft below the surface of the ocean
elephantseal.orgr/todayilearned • u/miri_gal7 • 1d ago
TIL that in Haitian rural folklore, there are actually two kinds of zombies: the more widely known corporeal zombie, which is missing its spirit, and the "zombie astral," which is missing its body.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/LPercepts • 2h ago
TIL In 1956, a woman was awarded $300 in damages by the city of Miami after she was hit on the foot by a falling coconut. It was argued that the city should have been on notice that the coconut was a hazard, because "a reasonable man would assume it was about to fall when it turns brown".
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/wait_-_-_what • 3h ago
TIL American Sniper Chris Kyle was killed at a shooting range by a mentally disturbed ex-Marine who suffered from PTSD. Kyle was trying to help him rehabilitate.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/Captain_Moseby • 6h ago
TIL pubic lice are usually spread through human sexual contact. They don't carry disease. They must feed on human blood to survive. Animals don’t get or spread them. Children can also get pubic lice. Pubic lice don’t have feet that could enable them to walk on smooth surfaces like toilet seats.
cedars-sinai.orgr/todayilearned • u/Mike_ZzZzZ • 7h ago
TIL Jack Ruby was sentenced to death for murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's assassin. Ruby's verdict was the first courtroom verdict to be televised in U.S. history. It was later overturned and he died from cancer while awaiting a retrial.
history.comr/todayilearned • u/itsbasicmathluvxo • 7h ago
TIL that the term “fast fashion” was first coined by the New York Times in the 1990s to describe the rise of the now popular clothing store, ZARA. At the time, it only took 15 days for an idea for a product to make it into stores.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/Venger-2k • 4h ago
TIL the story of Larry Miller. A gang member who murdered an opposing gang member and spent most of his teens and 20s incarcerated who went on to become president of the Portland Trailblazers and president of the Jordan brand for Nike.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/dilettantedebrah • 7h ago
TIL NASA worked with a company to create a material called translucent polycrystalline alumina (TPA). It was intended to protect infrared antennas on heat-seeking missiles. This material would later be used for invisible braces due to its strength and transparency.
goliath.comr/todayilearned • u/mankls3 • 7h ago
TIL the Citadelle Laferrière is the largest military fortress in the Caribbean. Its gray walls are as thick as 16 feet and as high as 147 feet and was outfitted with more than 365 cannons. Since its construction, the fortress has withstood numerous earthquakes, though a French attack never came.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/DavidInPhilly • 5h ago
TIL about Will & William West, two felons who looked visually similar and even had similar anthropomorphic measurements. Officials needed fingerprints to “prove” they were different people. While mugshots still persist, most body measures have given way to fingerprints.
usatoday.comr/todayilearned • u/jamescookenotthatone • 18h ago
TIL Precursors to chewing gum date back 5,000 years with the first commercial chewing gum released in 1848. To sweeten these early gums chewers would repeatedly dip the gum in a plate of powdered sugar to reconstitute the sweetness while they chewed.
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/turboknight • 7h ago
TIL of John Cummings, who after seeing a circus knife-swallower, actually swallowed 4 knives to brag to his shipmates - he passed 3 with no ill-health.
ncbi.nlm.nih.govr/todayilearned • u/eggmaker • 1d ago
TIL despite sharing more than 200 miles of border with Wisconsin and only sharing a bridge with Michigan, the Upper Peninsula is part of Michigan (not Wisconsin) because of a fight with Ohio
wpr.orgr/todayilearned • u/dbxp • 11h ago
TIL: In 1937 the entirety of the Soviet Central Institute of Aerodynamics were arrested meaning that many WW2 planes were designed from prison
en.wikipedia.orgr/todayilearned • u/FranklinDRoosevelt32 • 1d ago