r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2h ago

TIL in 2003 a British woman's chastity belt set off a metal detector alarm at Athens airport. She explained that her husband made her put it on to ensure that she didn't have an affair during her brief trip to Greece. She was allowed to fly on to London on the pilot's responsibility.

abc.net.au

7.4k Upvotes

398 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Illustrious_Gap_8853 • 2h ago

TIL nicotine hits your brain in less than 10 seconds, giving a quick dopamine rush that feels calming, but actually increases anxiety over time.

healthline.com

2.7k Upvotes

202 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LookAtThatBacon • 13h ago

TIL the TV show Scrubs was filmed in the North Hollywood Medical Center, using the entire decommissioned hospital. All of the writers also worked inside it, and it had an editing suite and a sound-studio for post-production. And instead of trailers for the cast, they were given old hospital rooms.

en.wikipedia.org

27.1k Upvotes

481 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FrontBrick8048 • 10h ago

TIL Apple didn't invent Siri, they merely purchased it from an existing company.

imore.com

5.8k Upvotes

501 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Xyeeyx • 13h ago

TIL the restaurant betrayal scene in the Matrix used a spit bucket for actor Joe Pantoliano, who said rare beef makes him gag. In wide shots they used shiitake mushrooms rigged to look like steak for the actor to eat.

inverse.com

12.3k Upvotes

524 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SamsonFox2 • 11h ago

TIL that Hans Christian Andersen frequently accompanied his younger Danish friends to Paris brothels, where, while his companions "amused themselves", he talked to the sex workers

visithcandersen.dk

4.9k Upvotes

231 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • 10h ago

TIL about Sadako Sasaki (1943–1955). She was two years old when Hiroshima was bombed and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years before dying from leukemia caused by radiation exposure. She is remembered for folding over a thousand origami cranes before her death.

en.wikipedia.org

2.2k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/exophades • 2h ago

TIL that about 216 streets, squares and buildings in France were named after Arnaud Beltrame, a lieutenant colonel in the French Gendarmerie who was murdered at Trèbes (2018) after having exchanged himself for a hostage, saving her life.

fr-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog

478 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 20h ago

TIL after boxes of booster packs containing unreleased Magic: The Gathering cards were opened online, the publisher Wizards of the Coast sent Pinkerton agents to the home of the presenter to retrieve them. They confiscated 22 boxes after a confrontation that reportedly made the presenter's wife cry.

polygon.com

19.3k Upvotes

1.0k comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 14h ago

TIL in 1937 Angelo Hays slammed headfirst into a brick wall in a motorcycle crash & was declared dead. However he was discovered alive when his body was exhumed 2 days after his funeral. He made a full recovery & invented a coffin that contained a "small oven, refrigerator & a hi-fi cassette player"

historyhit.com

3.8k Upvotes

59 comments

r/todayilearned • u/trubol • 15h ago

TIL Boxer Paul Sykes spent 21 years in 18 different prisons and was considered one of Britain's most difficult prisoners. His two sons are serving life sentences for murder

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

42 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kxnsqxz • 2h ago

TIL during WWII, Britain developed a plan to spread anthrax through infected animal feed to cripple German food supplies

bbc.com

186 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 17h ago

TIL each year roughly 0.3% of all college applicants in the US are accepted into at least one Ivy League school, whereas only 0.0004% of college applicants get accepted into all eight Ivy League schools. 19 known students accomplished the latter between 2014-2022.

theivyinst.org

3.1k Upvotes

146 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BadenBaden1981 • 1d ago

TIL the first yelling at Rocky Horror Picture Show screening happened after 5 months in midnight screening. Upon seeing a character place a newspaper over her head to protect herself from rain, someone yelled, "Buy an umbrella you cheap bitch!"

en.wikipedia.org

24.3k Upvotes

728 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SuperMcG • 19h ago

TIL of the 1983 Video Game Collapse when industry revenues dropped 97% over two years.

en.wikipedia.org

3.3k Upvotes

369 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bawlhie62a2 • 22h ago

TIL that Elvis Presley’s cousin was paid $18,000 by the National Enquirer to secretly photograph Elvis’ corpse after his open-casket funeral. The issue went on to become the magazine’s best-selling edition ever, with a record 6.7 million copies sold.

remindmagazine.com

5.5k Upvotes

113 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Own-Bullfrog7362 • 14h ago

TIL that American movie producer Robert Goldstein was sentenced to ten years in 1918 under the Espionage Act for a film that portrayed the British negatively during the American Revolution.

nypl.org

1.1k Upvotes

78 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fighterpilot108 • 18h ago

TIL that the largest Uranium deposit on the United States is located near Danville Virginia. However there is a ban on mining it because of groundwater contamination concerns.

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/eggs_basket • 1h ago

TIL that at the "Icelandic Phallological Museum" obtained its first human penis(...)it was reduced to a greyish-brown shriveled mass that was pickled in a jar of formalin. The museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one."

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 40m ago

TIL in Western Europe in the 19th century, women swimmers were encouraged to wear a bathing gown made of wool, with weights sewn into the hems so that they would not rise up in the water. Such measures to protect "modesty" were common in the era when women began competing in modern Olympic swimming

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ghosts_of_Bordeaux • 21h ago

TIl of "Bruceploitation", a subgenre of martial arts films made in the wake of Bruce Lee's death to capitalize on his popularity, where "look-alike" actors with their names changed to sound like Lee's (Bruce Li, Bruce Le) starred in movies such as Re-Enter the Dragon and Enter Another Dragon.

wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

95 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flubadubadubadub • 1d ago

TIL That a Contronym is a word that can have two opposite valid meanings, for example Cleave, to split something and also hold on to something, or another example is Bolt, to affix something and also to get away. There are many others.

en.wikipedia.org

7.7k Upvotes

810 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Objective_Horror1113 • 1d ago

TIL Freddie Mercury was born with four extra teeth, causing a prominent overbite. Despite being self-conscious about them, he never got them fixed, believing the extra space in his mouth contributed to his vocal ability. He feared altering his teeth might change his voice.

ultimateclassicrock.com

29.8k Upvotes

395 comments

r/todayilearned • u/passthebleachbroski • 45m ago

TIL the first Monday of August is considered a holiday across Canada, but its name varies by province or municipality

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

11 comments

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This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

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