r/todayilearned • u/CakeDayOrDeath • 1d ago

TIL The Boxcar Children, a series that starts out with four homeless orphan children living in a boxcar, was criticized when it first came out for depicting children living without parental supervision. Critics said it would encourage children to be rebellious.

en.wikipedia.org

6.3k Upvotes

343 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Present-Algae6767 • 1d ago

TIL that in 1998, Vatican City - population 697 people - had the highest murder rate in the world. This is due to the murder of Alois Estermann, the commander of the Swiss Guard, and his wife, Gladys Meza Romero, by Cédric Tornay, a Lance Corporal in the Swiss Guard.

en.wikipedia.org

2.4k Upvotes

53 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Boring-Dig4583 • 19h ago

TIL NASA has an official TTRPG involving the Hubble Space Telescope. Also, dragons.

science.nasa.gov

618 Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iamveryDerp • 1d ago

TIL the A-Team was created specifically to star B. A. Baracus. Tartikoff [producer] pitched the series to Cannell [writer] as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission: Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with "Mr. T driving the car".

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/strangelove4564 • 1d ago

TIL the highest point in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko, rising to 2,228 m (7,310 ft). On the Yosemite Decimal System which rates how technical a summit is, it is Class 1: reachable entirely by a hiking trail with no climbing gear required.

en.wikipedia.org

3.8k Upvotes

579 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pitiful_Magazine_805 • 1d ago

TIL about Nicolas Chamfort, a French writer who, to avoid being imprisoned by the revolutionary government, attempted suicide. He shot himself in the face, stabbed his neck multiple times, stabbed his chest and ankles but still survived and was arrested.

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

110 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Cornonthory • 1d ago

"tAmper" TIL that the Tsar Bomba, despite being the most powerful device ever detonated, didn't have as big of a nuclear fallout compared to other bombs of its era. This was because it used a lead temper instead of a uranium temper, specifically to reduce radioactive fallout.

en.wikipedia.org

11.2k Upvotes

434 comments

r/todayilearned • u/koreanforrabbit • 15h ago

TIL the ridges in a cactus are actually pleats which expand as water is taken in. They contract to decrease exposed surface area during droughts, which reduces water loss.

youtu.be

131 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dddoinyomom • 1d ago

TIL during the Spanish-American war, the Spanish territory of Guam was never informed of the war. They learned about two months later, when officials went to greet a US cruiser who fired shots at the island, initially believing them to be a gun salute

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/geosunsetmoth • 1d ago

TIL that the (likely) oldest depiction of Jesus Christ ever found was a graffiti mocking a guy called Alexamenos for worshipping Jesus, depicted with the head of a donkey. It says, "Alexamenos worships his god" next to a man praying by a donkey.

en.wikipedia.org

4.7k Upvotes

224 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chlorine-Queen • 1d ago

TIL about an albino eyeless fish living up to 640 feet deep at the bottom of the Congo River named “mondeli bureau”, which translates to “white man in an office”

smithsonianmag.com

2.1k Upvotes

90 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HowDareYou888 • 1d ago

TIL that in the 1880s, a French prayer book was woven from silk, including every letter and illustration. Its pages were produced on Jacquard looms controlled by hundreds of thousands of punched cards.

publicdomainreview.org

3.5k Upvotes

84 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ConsciousMaybe6930 • 1d ago

TIL, Gaius Octavius's official name after ascension to principate was Imperator Caesar Augustus, all of which would individually become imperial titles.

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ishusharma05 • 1d ago

TIL that Antarctica is the world’s largest desert, despite being covered almost entirely in ice — because deserts are defined by low precipitation, not heat.

education.nationalgeographic.org

4.5k Upvotes

112 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 3m ago

TIL Almost all of today’s new vehicles have some version of a keyless entry and push-button start system. 91% of 2019 model-year vehicles had keyless ignitions, up from 72% in 2014

magazine.northeast.aaa.com

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/UpperphonnyII • 1d ago

TIL on the morning of August 7, 1919, French airman Charles Godefroy, flew through the narrow gap of the Arc de Triomphe with a Nieuport 27 fighter. He did so out of protest for the fact that on the victory parade the airman were going to be made to march like infantry instead of a flyover.

migflug.com

3.4k Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/railroadfrog • 1d ago

TIL that a Curtis R5C Commando crashed into Mount Rainier in 1946, killing all 32 service members on board. Most of the bodies and a majority of the wreckage were never recovered, per the wishes of the families of the deceased, despite being located by search parties the next year.

flyingmag.com

1.4k Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SUMBWEDY • 1d ago

TIL a guy called Frank built a wall along the Alpine Fault in the South Island of New Zealand to test if the earthquakes are small and often or big and rare. It hasn't moved a millimeter in 64 years.

nzgeo.com

19.6k Upvotes

481 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Perennial_flowers956 • 1d ago

TIL in 1997, Canal France International accidentally aired hardcore porn for a solid 30 minutes during an afternoon children's educational program in the Arab World.

variety.com

3.7k Upvotes

131 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mutedmuse__ • 1d ago

TIL that wild female Northern mockingbirds can learn to distinguish between individual humans and react more strongly to people who have previously threatened them.

doi.org

588 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/geosunsetmoth • 1d ago

TIL that the Drabsha, the holy symbol for Mandaeism (an Abrahamic religion that explicitly denies Jesus Christ as a prophet), is also a wooden cross. This cross has nothing to do with the Christian cross, and they both landed on crosses as their symbol by coincidence.

en.wikipedia.org

559 Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ishmael_1974 • 1d ago

TIL the resin identification symbol isn’t the recycling symbol and doesn’t mean the plastic is recyclable.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

212 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 1d ago

TIL the US state "Nevada" just means "snowy" in Spanish. It was named this because the snow-covered mountains in winter reminded the first Europeans there of Sierra Nevada back in Spain.

en.wikipedia.org

1.0k Upvotes

153 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Valuable-Credit6167 • 1d ago

TIL that British wrestler William Regal once made a joke about Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, that upset the Royal Family enough for an official letter of complaint to be sent about him.

youtu.be

216 Upvotes

97 comments

r/todayilearned • u/delano1998 • 1d ago

TIL around 1907, the Standard Gum Machine Company made "Blinkey Eye Soda Mint" vending machines out of cast iron. Formerly found in Pennsylvanian candy shops, these creepy face-shaped dispensers featured eyes that actually blinked whenever a customer dispensed a piece of gum.

ridiculouslyinteresting.com

267 Upvotes

12 comments

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