TIL that Johnny Cash would create a snare drum effect in the studio by putting a dollar bill under the strings of his guitar [Source]

TIL of Sabbatai Zevi who in the 17th century claimed he was the Messiah, leading to a significant portion of Jews world wide believing him. Only for him to end up converting to Islam. [Source]

TIL that the last time the United States authorized a private person to conduct war (granting a letter of marque) was during the Second Barbary War (1815) [Source]

TIL chicken sold in supermarkets are often "plumped" with a salt water solution to increase sell weight, making up as much as 30% of the total weight. A serving of plumped chicken can contain between 200 and 500mg of sodium while non-plumped chicken generally contains 45 to 70mg. [Source]

TIL a married Czech couple born on the same day both won gold medals at the 1952 Olympics [Source]

TIL the rivers are so clean in Bern and Basel in Switzerland that many people commute to work by swimming. [Source]

TIL that Goerge Wendt, who played Norm on the TV show Cheers, was expelled from Notre Dame for a 0.00 GPA [Source]

TIL about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. All 36 men of the study lost 25% of their body weight eating 1,560 calories daily, proving that a calorie deficit alone causes weight loss. These starvation conditions produced a severe physical and mental decline in the subjects. [Source]

TiL Women are less likely to receive bystander CPR than men due to fears of 'inappropriate touching' [Source]

TIL Charles Darwin was invited on the HMS Beagle voyage as a companion to the captain, Robert FitzRoy, who feared the isolation of a five-year journey might drive him to suicide [Source]

TIL about William Price, a Welsh physician and Neo Druid who after the death of his infant son Iesu Grist in 1884, performed one of the first modern cremations in the UK, burning the body on a pyre. He was arrested though acquitted as their was no law against cremation. He was 84...his wife was 18. [Source]

TIL that the descendants of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who is credited as the founding father of Pakistan, have remained in India after the partition of British colonial India into India and Pakistan in 1947, after his only child, Dina Wadia's decision to stay back in India for her marital life. [Source]

TIL the late Senator Strom Thurmond’s father shot and killed a man who called him a “dog and a scoundrel”. A jury acquitted William Thurmond of murder. [Source]

TIL about Parakaryon myojinensis, a single-celled organism that is apparently distinct from all prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It is the only known species with a completely unknown position within the tree of life. [Source]

TIL that, unlike his father Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin was a staunch British loyalist who went into exile after the Revolutionary War and died in London in 1813. [Source]

TIL that famed sheriff Buford Pusser who lost his wife in a supposed retaliatory attack in 1967 and inspired the 1973 movie “Waling Tall” is now believed by investigators to be his wife’s murderer after an autopsy was finally performed on her in 2024. [Source]

TIL: in the 1920s, composer Maurice Ravel wrote an experimental work consisting only of one very long, gradual crescendo. He was astonished and displeased that the work, "Boléro", became a massive success. When a listener shouted "Rubbish!" at the premiere, he said "That old lady got the message!" [Source]

TIL "John Bohannon sent out bogus papers about a fictitious cancer experiment, papers that should have raised red flags. But more than 150 journals offered to publish his work." [Source]

TIL the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog puppet was found in an assortment of animal puppets at a country furniture store by Robert Smigel and his wife. Smigel immediately used it to jokingly smell his wife's butt, so she bought seven of those puppets and later gave them to Smigel as a birthday gift [Source]

TIL about the Virginia dynasty, a term sometimes used to describe the fact that four of the first five presidents of the United States were from Virginia. After the state contributed four of the first five presidents, four other natives of Virginia have so far served as president. [Source]

TIL Ozempic (weight-loss medication) was developed based on a protein found in the venom of the Gila Monster. Researchers discovered this protein in the lizard's venom, exendin-4, regulates blood sugar and appetite [Source]