TIL Weathermen Were Forbidden to Use the Term "Tornado" in Weather Forecasts until 1950 [Source]

TIL that Eleanor of Aquitaine was blamed by her husband King Louis VII for failing to produce a male heir in their fifteen years together. After the annulment of their marriage, Eleanor would go on to have five sons with her second husband Henry II including Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland [Source]

TIL the ADSL broadband protocol is so robust it can transfer data at reasonable speed over a literal wet string [Source]

TIL the Bernie Madoff victim compensation fund recovered almost 94% of the losses [Source]

TIL In-N-Out Burger used to accept orders of any size by adding patties and slices of cheese at an additional cost, till someone ordered 100 patties and 100 slices of cheese [Source]

TIL that in the 90s, FritoLay used Olestra, a fat substitute, to reduce fat and calories in some varieties of its chips. Consumers quickly soured on the products after suffering cramps and diarrhea [Source]

TIL that US student math and reading scores have dropped so sharply that they’ve erased nearly two decades of progress. In '22/23, avg math scores for 13-year-olds fell to levels not seen since the 1990s, while reading scores for high school seniors hit their lowest point since testing began in '92. [Source]

TIL that Brian Jones, the founder of the Rolling Stones had already fathered 7 children with 7 different women by the time of his death at the age of 27 in 1969. [Source]

TIL Phil Ivey won $9.6M in baccarat at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City through “edge sorting,” exploiting tiny card-back flaws before courts ruled it a breach and ordered $10M repayment [Source]

TIL Eli Herring, considered a top prospect in the 1995 NFL Draft, announced he would not play pro football since as a devout Mormon he would not play on Sundays. The Raiders drafted him anyway. He did not change his mind and never played [Source]

TIL On average, your friends have more friends than you do. This is because popular people are more likely to be in someone's friend group, which skews the average. This phenomenon is called the Friendship paradox [Source]

TIL Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, was so terrified of being electrocuted when electricity was first installed in the White House that he refused to touch light switches and would go to bed with all the lights on. [Source]

TIL a 29-year-old man survived sfter being seriously burned by molten steel (1,500°C), from the top of his head on down throughout his enitre body, in an accidental furnace explosion. He suffered burn wounds on 99.5% of his body (71% third degree, 23% fourth degree, and 5.5% deep second degree). [Source]

TIL the "100 people surveyed" on Family Feud are reached via random phone surveys where they have no idea they are providing answers for a game show. [Source]

TIL that in 2013, Kenan Thompson announced that he would no longer perform in drag on Saturday Night Live until the show cast actual black women. The following year, Leslie Jones and Sasheer Zamata joined the cast. [Source]

TIL Wensleydale cheese production nearly shut down in the 1990s, but after a local revival and being featured in Wallace and Gromit, sales increased and it continues running today. [Source]

TIL Atahualpa was the Emperor of Incan Empire of 12 million people. During the first meeting with Spanish, he was captured and ransomed for a room full of gold. He was converted to Christianity, then Spanish executed him after the room was filled. [Source]

TIL that, last year, a 19-year-old college student spent months trying to evict a squatter that illegally settled in a $2.3 million home near him. When he was finally able to convict her after 6 months of time and money, she simply posted bail and moved back into the house 11 days later. [Source]

TIL that Mountain Dew was originally developed as a mixer for Bourbon 🥃 [Source]

TIL Gerald Ford's teenage son Steven once sneaked twenty friends to party at the White House and ordered food and drinks, assuming they were free. The next day, his father showed him the bill from the Oval Office and he learned it came out of his salary [Source]