r/todayilearned • u/Jediweirdo • 2h ago

TIL that the Apollo 11 Source Code is available on GitHub and even back then they were cracking jokes in the comments of their code

github.com

2.2k Upvotes

140 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 5h ago

TIL that during WWI, German troops stopped to drink captured wine in Champagne's cellars, delaying their advance. Historians have found that the wine contributed to delays during the 1918 German spring offensive

doi.org

2.6k Upvotes

52 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 5h ago

TIL Mork & Mindy was a spinoff of Happy Days. Robin Williams first played Mork in February 1978, when the alien tried to take Richie Cunningham to planet Ork as a specimen, only to be stopped by Fonzie.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

375 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TooKreamy4U • 3h ago

TIL In 2021, a man in Beaverton, Oregon, stole a woman's SUV only to discover that her 4-year-old son was in the back seat. He reportedly drove back, returned the child to his mother, and scolded her for leaving him unattended. He drove away again but the SUV was recovered hours later without him

vancouver.citynews.ca

1.5k Upvotes

63 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mining_moron • 13h ago

Page 32 of link TIL that in 1963 several cows were carried into the air by a tornado in Illinois. They survived but "acted strangely for several days"

ncei.noaa.gov

11.5k Upvotes

453 comments

r/todayilearned • u/247Twunk • 14h ago

TIL that Leif Erikson was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.

en.wikipedia.org

15.7k Upvotes

1.7k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sanguinusshiboleth • 8h ago

TIL of the Fuggerei, the world's oldest social housing still in use (first opened in 1516), whose door bells are all unique to allow people to find their way home in the dark before street lights existed.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/userdk3 • 12h ago

Today I learned that Wisconsin is the only U.S. state that requires a license to make cheese. Becoming a master Cheesemaker takes 13 additional years.

cdr.wisc.edu

4.4k Upvotes

202 comments

r/todayilearned • u/beerbellybegone • 15h ago

TIL of the $100 hamburger, the excuse a general aviation pilot might use to fly. The $100 originally referred to the approximate total cost of renting or operating a light general aviation aircraft (such as a Cessna 172) for the round trip, and buying the meal.

en.wikipedia.org

6.0k Upvotes

336 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PrimeVector19 • 4h ago

TIL about Dawit Isaak, an Eritrean-Swedish playwright, journalist and writer who has been incarcerated in Eritrea since 2001. He is considered to be one of the world's longest continuously detained journalists, assuming he is still alive.

en.wikipedia.org

707 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RedDalmatian885 • 2h ago

TIL the longest running voice actor for Mickey Mouse, Wayne Allwine, was married to the longest running voice actress for Minnie Mouse, Russi Taylor.

en.wikipedia.org

306 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jimi15 • 12h ago

TIL in 2005 two African Flamingos escaped from a Zoo in Wichita, Kansas. And 13 years later one of them was spotted and identified as living in Texas.

bbc.com

2.0k Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 • 22h ago

TIL that Joseph Laroche, the Titanic’s only documented Black passenger, gave up first-class passage on another liner for second class on the Titanic because the other ship wouldn’t let children dine with their parents. His wife and daughters survived the sinking. He did not.

bbc.co.uk

19.3k Upvotes

396 comments

r/todayilearned • u/St_Gregory_Nazianzus • 11h ago

TIL that after German bombers sank the SS John Harvey at Bari in 1943, releasing its secret cargo of American mustard gas and killing dozens, the US military initially covered up the chemical leak by attributing the victims' deaths to “burns due to enemy action”.

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

77 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JPuree • 7h ago

TIL that Chinese checkers has nothing to do with China. It originated in Germany as Sternhalma and was based off the American game Halma; the later rebrand was an American marketing gimmick.

en.wikipedia.org

728 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 12h ago

TIL that the passenger pigeon, once a common American food staple, went extinct in 1914. Two years later, scientists began work to develop a "broiler" chicken, bred specifically for meat production. By 1960, per-capita consumption of chicken was 28 pounds. By 2018, it was estimated at 92.5 pounds.

popsci.com

1.7k Upvotes

102 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 1h ago

TIL that a man was held prisoner in him room by his father and stepmother for 20 years. When he escaped by setting the house on fire, he weighed only 68 pounds. Though his father had since died, the stepmother was charged and is awaiting trial.

newsnationnow.com

• Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Skychu768 • 16h ago

TIL Greece held a referendum in 1862 for their king, in which a guy with only 6 votes out of 240K was chosen because most others were barred for geopolitical reasons or refused to come. Some of the popular choices were “Emperor of Russіa',” “Napoleon III,” “Long Live the Three Powers," and "A King."

en.wikipedia.org

2.9k Upvotes

70 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pitiful_Magazine_805 • 16h ago

TIL that Wanli Emperor entered in a decades-long conflict with his officials over which son to succeed him. In the end, the official's favorite son became an Emperor but died just a month later from diarrhea, while Wanli's favorite son was captured and eaten by rebels as the Empire became unstable.

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

75 comments

r/todayilearned • u/lilb1190 • 9h ago

TIL that Busta Rhymes song "Dangerous" samples a 1980s PSA about kids taking loose medication."This is serious/We could make you delirious/You should have a healthy fear of us/'Cuz too much of us is dangerous"

en.wikipedia.org

467 Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 20h ago

TIL Eroom's law is the observation that drug discovery is becoming slower and more expensive over time, despite improvements in technology, a trend first observed in the 1980s. The inflation-adjusted cost of developing a new drug roughly doubles every nine years

en.wikipedia.org

3.2k Upvotes

233 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 7h ago

TIL Before becoming a Hollywood star, Rock Hudson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, working as an aircraft mechanic on Samar in the Philippines. He was discharged in 1946.

navy.togetherweserved.com

257 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/wandering_soles • 9h ago

TIL during WWII, a Japanese submarine shelled an oil field just north of Santa Barbara, California

en.wikipedia.org

394 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hlodvigovich915 • 2h ago

TIL there is no evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said the phrase "Let them eat cake"

en.wikipedia.org

76 Upvotes

49 comments

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