TIL that the first atomic clock, built in 1955, was so accurate it would lose only about one second every 300 years making it more precise than the Earth’s rotation. [Source]
Science Museum Group Collection
Caesium Atomic Clock, 1955. | Science Museum Group Collection
Caesium atomic clock made by Louis Essen and J.V.L. Parry at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, London, 1955.
TIL the San Diego Zoo grew out of exotic animal exhibitions abandoned after the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. It was cheaper to leave the animals behind than transport them back to where they came from [Source]
San Diego History Center | San Diego, CA | Our City, Our Story
The San Diego Zoo after 100 years - San Diego History Center | San Diego, CA | Our City, Our Story
The nucleus that evolved into the San Diego Zoo lay in the display of animals at the Panama-California Exposition held in 1915- 1916. So popular did the Exposition become, it carried on for a second year, added the word international, and included an array…
TIL over 40 years researcher Ian Stevenson, M.D, amassed 3000 cases of children aged 2-5 who claimed to remember past lives, recalling specific details like names, locations and events from the previous lives of deceased individuals. [Source]
TIL of Ian Waterman, who was unable to move or even sit up after a rare infection destroyed his sixth sense (proprioception). While he could still compel his muscles to contract, he lost the ability to coordinate his movements, only relearning to move after years of training to use his body. [Source]
PubMed
Proprioception - PubMed
Although familiar to each of us, the sensation of inhabiting a body is ineffable. Traditional senses like vision and hearing monitor the external environment, allowing humans to have shared sensory experiences. But proprioception, the sensation of body position…
TIL that Philo Farnsworth, the man who invented television, only appeared on a TV program one time. In 1957 he appeared on the quiz show I've Got A Secret. His secret was "I invented electronic television", which stumped the panel. For winning he received $80 and a carton of cigarettes. [Source]
TIL the first successful large scale slave rebellion was the Haitian Revolution. Spanning 1791 - 1804 the enslaved Africans of Haiti rebelled against Napoleon's rule, to earn their freedom. It is one of the only slave rebellions that ended in a state free of slavery, and ruled by former slaves [Source]
TIL the Marquis de Lafayette was made a major general in the Continental Army when he came to support the Americans in the Revolutionary War at age 19, despite never holding a rank above Captain in the French army—a rank he received as a wedding present. [Source]
American Battlefield Trust
Marquis de Lafayette
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, better known simply as the Marquis de Lafayette, was born into an extremely noble family in Chavaniac, France in...
TIL About the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi), a fish newly discovered off the coast of California [Source]
MBARI
MBARI's advanced underwater technology reveals a new species of deep-sea snailfish • MBARI
The bumpy snailfish is one of three new species of deep-sea snailfish described by MBARI collaborators at SUNY Geneseo.
TIL On 30 December 1999, Beatle George Harrison and his wife, Olivia, were brutally attacked in their home, Friar Park, by an intruder named Michael Abram which resulted in George suffering 40 stab wounds, one narrowly missing his heart. [Source]
www.abc.net.au
How history nearly repeated with a fan's attack on a Beatles star
Unlike his former bandmate John Lennon, George Harrison survived an attack by a fan, but the musician's friends and family speculated it hastened his death less than two years later.
TIL that in 2018 there was a diplomatic spat between India and Pakistan due to accusations that diplomats were ringing each other's doorbells at 3.00am, then running away. [Source]
the Guardian
Pakistan recalls envoy from India in ding-dong over harassment claims
Both accuse the other of harassing respective diplomatic staff, including 3am doorbell ringing
TIL that the last known individual dinosaur was a triceratops that lived as recently as several thousand years before the K–Pg extinction event. No younger dinosaur fossils have yet been found. [Source]
Yale News
Last dinosaur before mass extinction discovered
A team of scientists has discovered the youngest dinosaur preserved in the fossil record before the catastrophic meteor impact 65 million years ago.
TIL that Julius Yego, who famously taught himself Javelin through the internet, is still competing at the elite level 11 years after his famous World Championship win in 2015. At the 2025 World Championships he made it to the final and placed 6th. [Source]
World Athletics
Walcott wins javelin title in Tokyo
Report of the men's javelin at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25
TIL Richard of Shrewsbury was knighted before 2 years old, married at 4, widowed at 8, then likely murdered at 9. [Source]
TIL in 2019 Indian magician Chanchal Lahiri drowned in the Hooghly River while attempting a Houdini trick, he was lowered into the water while shackled but did not emerge, his body was found the next day [Source]
BBC News
Indian magician Chanchal Lahiri drowns attempting Houdini trick
The body of Chanchal Lahiri, who was lowered into a river while shackled, has now been found.
TIL the son of Queen Victoria's 8th son was an important figure in the Nazi party and a member of Reichstag from 1936 to 1945 [Source]
TIL that female stoats become reproductively mature at 15 days old, while they're still suckling and blind. Adult males will mate with said immature females, which then successfully give birth next year. [Source]
TIL that the Samurai era in Japan and the American Wild West were happening at the same time. [Source]
WHHA (en-US)
The Japanese Mission of 1860
During the 1850s Japan gradually began to discard its isolationist foreign policy of sakoku (“locked country”) and began...
TIL: The Great Khan had a silver tree that dispensed 4 types of alcohol so that he never ran out. [Source]
Amusing Planet
The Silver Tree of Karakorum
Of all the things described in William of Rubruck's account of his travels through 13th-century Asia, perhaps none is so striking as the remarkably ornate fountain he encountered in the Mongol capital which — complete with silver fruit and an angelic automaton…
TIL that after Malcolm X’s assassination, the Audubon Ballroom was cleaned up and a party was held later that same night. [Source]
Yahoo News
The Enduring Mystery of Malcolm X's Assassination
February 21 marks the 55th anniversary of Malcolm X's murder
TIL Tamzin Merchant was originally cast to play Danaerys Targaryen in the unaired pilot of Game of Thrones. She was later replaced by Emilia Clarke when the pilot was poorly received and subsequently remade. [Source]
TIL that Amazon patented a wristband in 2018 that was designed to track warehouse workers’ hand movements in real time and direct them via vibrations. [Source]
the Guardian
Amazon patents wristband that tracks warehouse workers' movements
Bracelet, which can vibrate to point an employee’s hand in the right direction, would further increase surveillance of work environment