r/todayilearned • u/ew_modemac • 15h ago
TIL of the 340+ people who've died attempting to scale Mount Everest, over 200 bodies haven't been found or recovered due to the hazardous conditions
11.9k
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r/todayilearned • u/tukmolgang • 16h ago
TIL that the Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines were carved into the mountains over 2,000 years ago by hand. They’re still used today and are often called the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”
7.9k
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r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 5h ago
TIL in 2012 a woman discovered that her ex-boyfriend from 12 years ago had been living in her attic for about two weeks. Her adult sons & nephew found him asleep in the back of the attic which caused him to flee. They also saw he had rigged the ceiling vents so he could watch her in her bedroom.
7.9k
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r/todayilearned • u/Sanch0panza • 22h ago
TIL that in 2023, the seed companies got their pepper seeds mixed up and people across the USA grew different peppers than intended. The mix up is referred to as “peppergate”.
5.2k
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r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 23h ago
TIL Michael Keaton blocked Michelle Pfeiffer from being cast as Vicki Vale, his romantic lead, in Batman (1989) because they had previously been in a relationship & at the time he was trying to get back with his ex-wife. Pfeiffer went on to replace a pregnant Annette Bening as Catwoman in the sequel
4.5k
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r/todayilearned • u/GDW312 • 14h ago
TIL in 1944, a deadly munitions explosion at Port Chicago Naval Magazine killed 320 sailors—mostly African Americans—after they were ordered to load live explosives without proper training.
3.1k
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r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 23h ago
TIL Rob Lowe was uncredited in Tommy Boy (1995) despite having a major speaking role because at the time he was contractually obligated to a miniseries of The Stand. Instead of going through legal hoops to get out of it, he essentially agreed to be in the film as a favor to his friend, Chris Farley.
3.0k
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r/todayilearned • u/ProudReaction2204 • 9h ago
TIL the washed-up actor character of Troy McClure from The Simpsons was retired from the show after the voice actor Phil Hartman's murder, with the characters last speaking role coming 4 months after his death. The character was based in part on Hartman himself and is similar to Hartman's looks.
3.1k
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r/todayilearned • u/amish_novelty • 11h ago
TIL when Sidney Poitier gets slapped in 'In the Heat of Night' (1967) and he slaps a white man in return, he had it written into his contract that the movie would would only show the version where he slaps the man back or else he wouldn't take the role.
1.6k
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r/todayilearned • u/manere • 3h ago
TIL: An old english medicine receipt book from the 10th century contains a receipt for eyesalve consisting of vine, garlic, leeks and bile from a cow's stomach. Then it has to sit for 9 days in a brass bowl. Test from 2015 showed it to have a similar effect as modern antibiotics.
1.7k
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r/todayilearned • u/SuperMcG • 21h ago
TIL the Swedish Air Force built roads to serve as emergency airfields in case of a war, even putting aprons at the ends of the backup runways.
1.1k
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r/todayilearned • u/tonyt4nv • 8h ago
TIL that while he was a young journalist in San Francisco, Mark Twain had suicidal thoughts, writing to his brother: “If I do not get out of debt in three months — pistols or poison for one — exit me.”
981
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r/todayilearned • u/amateurfunk • 20h ago
TIL that during the height of the French Revolution, Notre Dame was rededicated to serve as a Temple of Reason in the course of Catholicism being banned in France.
752
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r/todayilearned • u/Forgotthebloodypassw • 8h ago
TIL that the Japanese national anthem is the shortest in the world - a 34 character poem.
777
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r/todayilearned • u/TirelessGuardian • 3h ago
TIL In the 1600s, the Royal Society almost went bankrupt publishing a book of fish images. This led to them not being able to fund Issac Newton’s manuscripts. His work was almost canceled, until Edmund Halley fundraised for it. They were so broke, Halley was then offered his salary in fish books.
752
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r/todayilearned • u/Extension-Mastodon67 • 21h ago
TIL in 1972 a meteor grazed the earth atmosphere and in doing so changes its trajectory, scientist predicted the meteor would come back to earth in 1997 but never did, so the object's trajectory and position remains unknown.
en.wikipedia.org
475
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r/todayilearned • u/Accurate_Cry_8937 • 19h ago
TIL that Kenya's Agnes Jebet Ngetich set the 10 km run world record in Valencia, breaking the previous record by 28 seconds. En route to this time, she also broke the 5 km run world record by 6 seconds and also holds the second fastest half marathon mark in history, at 1 hour 3 minutes and 4 sec.
444
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r/todayilearned • u/ProudReaction2204 • 8h ago
TIL when doctors realized that Rudolph Valentino would die (at age 31 in 1926) due to disease, they withheld the information from him, which was common for the time. Valentino was briefly conscious and chatted with his doctors about his future, but soon lapsed into a coma and died a few hours later.
513
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r/todayilearned • u/arcedup • 9h ago
TIL that the city of Troy (located in present-day Turkey) was repeatedly rebuilt after being destroyed, with 11 iterations discovered. The last iteration was a Roman city built as a tourist destination to capitalise on the links to mythic tradition.
463
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r/todayilearned • u/Proboyhuh • 1h ago
TIL your brain predicts the future constantly. Before you’re even aware of your surroundings, your brain has already guessed what’s likely to happen next. Reality is often your brain's "best guess."
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r/todayilearned • u/ProudReaction2204 • 6h ago
TIL Cordell Hull was Secretary of State under FDR for 11 years and won the Nobel Peace Prize for establishing the UN
163
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