r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL Snoop Dogg was excommunicated by the Rastafari Council after his attempt to rebrand as Rastafarian "Snoop Lion"

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jamaicansmusic.com
995 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL hippos have a reflex mechanism that allows them to pop up, take a breath, and go back down without waking up so they can sleep underwater.

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nathab.com
6.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL That the saying "cried all the way to the bank" is popularly attributed to Liberace, who famously wrote the phrase in a telegram after winning a libel suit against a reporter who had insinuated that Liberace was homosexual.

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en.wikipedia.org
798 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL of Caratacus who held off the Romans for ten years, using hit and run tactics. Finally he was betrayed and taken prisoner by the Romans, but gave such an eloquent speech, that Emperor Claudius set him free.

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en.wikipedia.org
2.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL Whale falls are a major source of nutrients for the ocean's bathyal or abyssal zones. The remains of an estimated 690,000 whales are being broken down on the ocean floor, with the bodies being picked clean, the skeletons dissolved, and ultimately a reef formed.

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en.wikipedia.org
3.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL Sharks first appeared around 420 million years ago, which means they were around before the dinosaurs

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shark-islands.com
476 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 22h ago

Today I learned that genuine wasabi is rare and likely not even served in most high-end sushi restaurants. Apparently the real deal is difficult to grow as it’s quite picky and takes approx. three years to mature.

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mashed.com
5.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1h ago

TIL that Bothie the Polar Dog is the only dog to travel to both the South and North Poles. No other dog is expected to match Bothie's achievement of visiting both poles after the Antarctic Treaty of 1994, which has subsequently forbidden dogs from the Antarctic continent.

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en.wikipedia.org
Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago All-Seeing Upvote

TIL that Hawaii was a sovereign self-governing kingdom all the way up until 1893, totally unassociated with the U.S., until a coup d'état that year by 13 businessmen and 162 U.S. troops, with the openly stated goal of annexing the islands. (They succeeded.)

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nvlchawaii.org
21.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago Gold Wearing is Caring Burning Cash

TIL Elvis Presley craved the Fool's Gold Loaf, which consists of a hollowed-out loaf of French bread filled with one 1-lb. jar each of creamy peanut and grape jelly and a pound of fried bacon. It packs ~8,000 calories. He and friends once flew from Memphis to Denver to eat 30 of them.

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en.wikipedia.org
42.6k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 6h ago

TIL it's illegal to sell whisky in Scotland that is less than 40% alcohol by volume (abv)

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scotch-whisky.org.uk
159 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL, that because Mars father is Jupiter and Jupiters father is Saturn, Johann Bode proposed that the 7th planet should be named after Jupiters father. Bode was unaware of the fact that Uranus was the greek and not roman god. There are now 6 planets named after roman gods and 1 named after a greek.

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en.wikipedia.org
366 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1h ago

TIL - in 1973, Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) wrote the song “Starfucker”, after Carly Simon released her hit song “You’re So Vain”. Jagger had an affair with Simon, who was married to James Taylor at the time, and the affair ended a few months before her song was released.

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en.wikipedia.org
Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL: Ginggaew Lorsoungnern is a Thai woman who survived her first execution in 1979 because she had situs inversus, a condition where all of the body’s organs are reversed.

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75 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL If you heat the diamond in the open air, it will begin to melt and burn at around 700 degrees Celsius (1,292 degrees Fahrenheit). Burning a diamond without oxygen, however, will make it change into graphite (a crystalline form of carbon) before transforming into a fluid.

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bixlers.com
121 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 17h ago

TIL Some of the reasons people drive aggressively include a sense of anonymity while driving, feeling more empowered driving than in the rest of their lives, and a feeling that other drivers have previously driven aggressively around them.

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756 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL Copyleft is a thing - It's the legal name for a license allowing free use and modification of work. And yes, it has a symbol that is a rotated copyright mark.

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en.wikipedia.org
411 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 41m ago

TIL L'Anse aux Meadows is the oldest known European settlement in North America. Discovered in 1960 in present-day Newfoundland, its origin was confirmed to be Viking from the 11th century based on artifacts and evidence consistent with other known Norse examples in Greenland and Iceland

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whc.unesco.org
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r/todayilearned 16h ago

TIL that Stephen III of Moldavia handed the Ottoman Empire one of its greatest losses in 1475, despite being heavily outnumbered. After the battle, Stephen fasted for forty days and banned people from praising him for his success, saying that it belonged to God alone.

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en.wikipedia.org
508 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL that the cavatappi pasta shape was created by accident when a set of pasta dies at a Barilla factory had been mistakenly made with a spiral (instead of straight) set of lines. These produced pasta in a spiral or spring shape.

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en.wikipedia.org
59 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 50m ago

TIL about Richard Ankrom, an artist who created and installed a perfect replica of a highway sign to prevent motorists from missing the exit from CA-110 (north) to I-5 (north)

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thelandmag.com
Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

TIL two former captive beluga whales, Little Grey and Little White, were flown 6000 miles, from China to Iceland.

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aircargonews.net
57 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL the longest recorded sniper kill was in June 2017, by an unnamed Canadian sniper with a 3,540 m (3,871 yd) shot in the Iraqi Civil War, surpassing a 2009 record by over 1,000 m (1,100 yd).

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en.wikipedia.org
5.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 11h ago

TIL that limelight is a type of lighting once used for stages. Intense illumination is created when a flame fed by oxygen and hydrogen is directed at a cylinder of quicklime. Long since replaced by electric lighting, the term has survived; someone in the public eye is said to be "in the limelight."

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en.wikipedia.org
166 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL: About João de Sá, a 15th century African slave who eventually became a court jester in Portugal and then a gentleman courtier. He was frequently mocked by other courtiers for his skin color, but he had the unique privilege of being the only one who can mock nobility without consequences.

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en.wikipedia.org
71 Upvotes