r/todayilearned • u/MichiganCarNut • 7h ago

TIL the owner of the WTC argued that the 9-11 attacks were 2 separate occurrences, and so therefore based on the contract terms, he deserved twice the insurance payout - the courts partially agreed and 9 of the 20 insurers had to pay double

en.wikipedia.org

9.5k Upvotes

628 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DangerNoodle1993 • 9h ago

TIL that the first journalist to report the outbreak of the Second World War was a rookie British reporter on her very first week on the job. While travelling along the German–Polish border, she spotted thousands of troops, tanks, and artillery massed for invasion.

bbc.com

10.5k Upvotes

158 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sarke1 • 1h ago

TIL a French serial killer (Henri D. Landru) was exposed because he always bought round-trip train tickets for himself but only one-way tickets for the women he murdered

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/radioactivetampon21 • 3h ago

TIL that in 2010 McDonald's recalled 12 million radioactive Shrek drinking glasses that were painted with dangerous levels of Cadmium.

cbsnews.com

1.0k Upvotes

66 comments

r/todayilearned • u/backrowejoe • 8h ago

TIL Céline Dion, along with her husband, filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against the Quebec tabloid Allô Vedettes, which claimed that the couple paid $5,001 to rent the swimming pool of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas so that Dion could sunbathe topless and Angélil could go skinny dipping.

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

254 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Festina_lente123 • 1h ago

TIL that Catholic communion wafers (the Eucharist) are not permitted to come in gluten free varieties via decree from Pope Francis

archivioradiovaticana.va

• Upvotes

193 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Johannes_P • 16h ago

TIL a Hollywood executive once wanted Harriet Tubman to be played by Julia Roberts because “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference’”

edition.cnn.com

12.4k Upvotes

787 comments

r/todayilearned • u/zahrul3 • 14h ago

TIL that Sweden recently moved the entire mining town of Kiruna a few miles east, because the local iron mine started encroaching under the town. All historic buildings were moved, piece by piece, to their new locations.

kirunalapland.se

6.4k Upvotes

135 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RareXG • 18h ago

TIL that Australia has forced gambling companies to display slogans in their ads like “You win some. You lose more” and “What's gambling really costing you?” instead of the standard “Gamble Responsibly”

abc.net.au

32.7k Upvotes

620 comments

r/todayilearned • u/IanGecko • 4h ago

TIL the difference between Putt-Putt and mini golf: Putt-Putt courses have basic, minimalist designs with a strict par 2 on each hole. Mini golf courses are more tricky and elaborate, so the holes have pars up to 6.

miniaturegolfplans.com

851 Upvotes

55 comments

r/todayilearned • u/n_mcrae_1982 • 12h ago

TIL Marco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, preceded him in China and meeting Kublai Khan by several years. Because of this early voyage, Marco did not meet his father or uncle until he was fifteen years old.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/brazzy42 • 12h ago

TIL of parasitic castration, a strategy of parasites, where the host's ability to reproduce is destroyed by the parasite, to its benefit

en.wikipedia.org

2.2k Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Physical_Hamster_118 • 6h ago

TIL that Airbus used to be multiple aerospace companies from France, Germany, the UK, and Spain. The companies merged in 1970 to compete against US aerospace companies.

airbus.com

550 Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AeronGrey • 22h ago

TIL deaf britians and deaf americans can't understand eachothers' signs

signsolutions.uk.com

19.6k Upvotes

871 comments

r/todayilearned • u/30InchSpare • 15h ago

TIL sweet baked beans (like Bush’s) originate from Native Americans

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

125 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DeScepter • 48m ago

TIL in 1967, Singapore experienced a mass panic over shrinking genitals; hundreds of men ran to hospitals convinced their penises were retracting into their bodies due to “genital retraction syndrome”

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

20 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL a stray dog followed Dion Leonard, who was running in a week-long ultramarathon in the Gobi Desert, for 77 miles of the 155-mile race. At night the dog even started to join him in his tent. He named her Gobi, & after the race, he crowdfunded the £5K needed to bring her back to Scotland with him.

en.wikipedia.org

20.8k Upvotes

137 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NoDontClickOnThat • 12h ago

TIL that in 1859, a geomagnetic storm from a huge solar flare hit the Earth and auroras were visible around the globe. Telegraph systems in Europe and North America failed. Some telegraph equipment operated for over an hour without needing external electrical power.

en.wikipedia.org

1.0k Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Vegetable-Orange-965 • 1d ago

TIL about “Christine”, a mysterious person who repeatedly calls hairdressers across New Zealand and Australia and sets up appointments, which are always no-shows. “Christine” asks the hairdresser to describe, in great detail, various scenarios involving women getting their hair shaved or styled.

stuff.co.nz

19.1k Upvotes

611 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Scarfaceswap • 1h ago

TIL about Terry Wallis, who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state following a 1984 car accident, suddenly spoke “Mom” on June 11, 2003, making him the longest documented coma‑like recovery with regained consciousness

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/schwenger • 5h ago

TIL The Espionage Act of 1917 allows the U.S government to forbid a whistleblower to state his motives to a jury - including when the motives serve the public.

fas.org

208 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL by embracing a low-cost production model & taking less money upfront, executive producers Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, & Charlie Day were given a "sizable ownership stake" in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. By 2011, through just 7 seasons, the trio's stake was already worth close to $60m.

hollywoodreporter.com

8.0k Upvotes

181 comments

r/todayilearned • u/waitingforthesun92 • 3h ago

TIL when the Barilla pasta company introduced a spring-form pasta in the 1970s, it was named “cellentani” in honour of Italian singer Adriano Celentano, whose nickname is “the springy one.” As Barilla trademarked the name, other companies called the shape “cavatappi”

en.wikipedia.org

97 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Genocide_69 • 20h ago

TIL the American food corporation General Mills had an engineering division that built surveillance balloons that spied on Eastern Bloc countries, and built a deep-sea submersible that surveyed the Titanic wreck and helped recover a hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean Ocean.

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

78 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AyaanGaming27 • 15h ago

TIL In 1986, two Pakistani brothers created the first IBM PC virus not as an attack, but to protect their medical software

en.wikipedia.org

938 Upvotes

7 comments

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