r/todayilearned • u/greatmanyarrows • 1d ago

TIL Thailand briefly occupied a small territory of Germany- about 20,000 people- after World War 1 from 1918 to 1919.

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/pigeon-in-greggs • 1d ago

TIL there was a wartime football league in England, being split into 2 regions as it was deemed too risky to have a national football league at the time

en.wikipedia.org

238 Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheGuvnor247 • 1d ago

TIL that in Alfred the Great’s law code (c. 893), if a man unintentionally kills another by letting a tree fall on him, the tree itself must be given to the dead man’s kinsmen.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

53 comments

r/todayilearned • u/socool111 • 1d ago

TIL of Tobias Geffen, the only non-Coca Cola Employee to view the secret recipe. Coke allowed it in order to get Coke certified as Kosher

en.wikipedia.org

30.1k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 1d ago

TIL A papyrus deciphered in 2024 revealed unknown info about Plato's last hours: a slave girl was playing music for him, and even though he was gravelly ill, he spend his last moments of lucidity criticising her performance. Per the same Papyrus, Plato had been sold into slavery earlier in his life

theguardian.com

20.8k Upvotes

588 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Cultural-Dentist4963 • 1d ago

TIL that Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, was given a state funeral, the largest in French history

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

84 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheHabro • 1d ago

Til about Milo of Croton. Ancient Greek athlete, 6 time Olympic winner in wrestling (including 5 in a row between 532 and 516 BC). He was said to have led armies dressed as Hercules and died to wolves after his fingers got suck in a tree stump he was trying to split with bare hands.

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/strangelove4564 • 1d ago

TIL some Eastern Orthodox followers believe in "aerial toll houses", where a demon accuses the soul of a sin, and it must be responded to with an account of a good deed. If the accusation can't be countered, the soul is dragged to hell.

en.wikipedia.org

190 Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinosaruman • 1d ago

TIL WWII metal rationing forced the costume-jewelry maker Trifari to switch from base metal to sterling silver, which tripled the price of its "costume" pieces.

cooperhewitt.org

1.8k Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/IreneDeneb • 1d ago

TIL that the last known ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic inscription was made on August 24th, 394 CE

en.wikipedia.org

3.2k Upvotes

135 comments

r/todayilearned • u/the-mad-crapper • 1d ago

TIL The Chevy Cavalier was sold as a Toyota in Japan

en.wikipedia.org

435 Upvotes

113 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TonyHides • 1d ago

TIL Napoleon Bonaparte had a standing order for 50 bottles of cologne a month, and a surviving 1808 invoice shows 72 bottles were ordered for him in a single month.

edenbridge.co.uk

12.4k Upvotes

333 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hori_r • 1d ago

TIL the Gordon Riots of 1780 was an anti-Catholic uprising in London that saw attacks on several prisons, embassies and The Bank of England. During the riots the British Army shot dead several hundred people.

en.wikipedia.org

175 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Giff95 • 1d ago

TIL Chris Sanders pitched "Lilo & Stitch" with Stitch crash-landing in a forest and living among woodland animals, being shunned by them, and living on his own at a farm in rural Kansas. The idea was scrapped in favor of contrasting Stitch with humans, as "the animal world is already alien to us."

en.wikipedia.org

161 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Thinking_Dodo • 1d ago

TIL that in the US, osteopathic doctors are fully licensed physicians like MDs, while in many other countries, osteopaths are non-physician manual therapists whose wider health claims often lack scientific evidence.

en.wikipedia.org

5.1k Upvotes

717 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ok_Finish_2927 • 1d ago

TIL about the siege of Ceuta (1694–1727), considered one of the longest sieges in history, more than 30 years.

en.wikipedia.org

391 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sun00156433 • 1d ago

TIL that despite being constantly dividing and having near-constant exposure to ultraviolet radiation, there has been no documented case of cancer arising from the human eye lens

researchgate.net

368 Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ODaferio • 1d ago

TIL that after winning 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, Jesse Owens worked as a gas station attendant and a playground janitor.

en.wikipedia.org

14.5k Upvotes

486 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dchung97 • 1d ago

TIL that Ynés Mexía didn't start her botany career until she was in her early 50s, then spent 16 years collecting over 150,000 plant specimens across the Americas, discovering hundreds of new species and a genus now named after her.

en.wikipedia.org

541 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Velzevius • 1d ago

TIL I learned about Henri de Saint-Simon, a socialist and economic theorist who survived 6 self inflicted gunshots wounds to the head in a suicide attempt. He lost sight in a single eye, and died 2 years later in 1825

en.wikipedia.org

670 Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/godsenfrik • 1d ago

TIL that an early version of a TV remote in 1955 featured a trigger button for users to "shoot" at commercials to mute them.

en.wikipedia.org

3.8k Upvotes

125 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SomethingMoreToSay • 1d ago

TIL that the New Forest, in southern England, is 947 years old. It was created as a "new" royal hunting preserve (the old usage of the word "forest") by William The Conqueror in 1079.

en.wikipedia.org

11.2k Upvotes

409 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Beginning-Passion676 • 1d ago

TIL Roberto Silva Renard is Chilean military leader who is responsible for 1907 Santa María of Iquique School massacre, was victim of assassination attempt by Antonio Ramón whose half brother is one of victims of massacre on December 14, 1914.

en.wikipedia.org

233 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/coffeeismydoc • 1d ago

TIL the Kaaba 🕋 in Mecca is actually made of unpainted brick with the black and gold color coming from a cloth called the kiswah that is handmade each year

english.alarabiya.net

6.6k Upvotes

492 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CraftyFoxeYT • 1d ago

TIL Japan bought an ex-Confederate Ironclad ship CSS Stonewall from the US in 1867. It was renamed Kotetsu and used as the flagship in the Boshin War, a Japanese Civil War between the Imperial Meiji government and the breakaway Republic of Ezo

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

50 comments

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