Today I Learned - Ad Free
1.22K subscribers
3 photos
59.3K links
The 'Today I Learned' or TIL channel, forwards hot posts from /r/todayIlearned. This channel doesn't add advertisements to the source url.
Learn more, without ads.

Now open to invites and shareable with link:
t.me/TodayILearnedAF

Admin: @ZeroByMiesOne
Download Telegram
TIL of John Smeaton, an airport worker who kicked an attempted suicide bomber in the nuts. He would later be awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.
https://ift.tt/3b26uHw

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 05:26AM by NyaGoesTheCat
via reddit https://ift.tt/3ddHYVF
TIL Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, produced over 179 adult-humored commercials for Wilkins Coffee from 1957-1961. The commercials followed a formula of one muppet creatively harming the other.
https://ift.tt/3d9Jx7a

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 04:46AM by MustardQuill
via reddit https://ift.tt/2vxD313
TIL phages (a group of viruses) were supposed to be studied as antibacterial agents in human medicine, but were cut short by the discovery of penicillin shortly after. With today's increasingly drug-resistant bacteria, phages are being considered once again.
https://ift.tt/392kXSD

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 06:03AM by micro_haila
via reddit https://ift.tt/2U2m0gW
TIL of Eva Umlauf, a Jew who arrived in Auschwitz at the age of two in 1944. Despite her young age, she was tattooed with her camp number: A26959. Getting it was so painful, that she passed out. Her mother was a digit lower. Eva thinks she was the youngest child to have been tattooed who survived.
https://ift.tt/2ay0RH0

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 01:01PM by Russian_Bagel
via reddit https://ift.tt/2J4z2UJ
TIL that after a woman murdered her husband and attempted suicide, their pet parrot who was the sole witness began repeating what's thought to have been their last conversation, including the words: "Don't shoot!"
https://ift.tt/391vxt4

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 02:20PM by Weaselur
via reddit https://ift.tt/2UmELui
TIL about "The Great Leveler," a book that argues that the greatest redistributions of wealth in history are during times of war, plague, and catastrophe, citing the Black Death and WWI as "actually suppressing inequality, by raising the price of labour."
https://ift.tt/2owFCao

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 03:13PM by ihatechoosingnames
via reddit https://ift.tt/3dcTnW4
TIL in 1867, after NYC firemen sent a fire engine/fire gears for use by Columbia, South Carolina which was razed by fire in the Civil War, the state promised to return favor “should misfortune ever befall the Empire City.” After 9/11, Columbia sent a fire ladder truck to FDNY as a gesture from 1867.
https://ift.tt/2Qqan1b

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 03:36PM by TrendWarrior101
via reddit https://ift.tt/2x7qgmj
TIL when Julie Andrews won the Oscar for Mary Poppins, she thanked Jack Warner, the producer of the competing movie, My Fair Lady. Andrews had starred in My Fair Lady on Broadway but Warner refused to cast her in the movie, leaving Andrews open to play Mary Poppins.
https://ift.tt/1mT55s7

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 06:04PM by marmorset
via reddit https://ift.tt/2UnyheH
TIL Captive Giant Pandas were shown a video of pandas mating in the wild, in an effort to get them to mate in the female's 3-day breeding cycle. When "Yongyong" tried to mount "Ke Lin", she fought him off; but after Ke Lin viewed the "panda pornography," the pair mated successfully.
https://ift.tt/38YBt5P

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 04:50PM by Miskatonica
via reddit https://ift.tt/3dce3xl
TIL, old books have a particular smell due to lignin being present in the paper. Lignin is related to vanillin, leading them to have a faint vanilla scent.
https://ift.tt/2EqrQh7

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 09:50PM by hr00ns
via reddit https://ift.tt/396280A
TIL prior to the flu pandemic (1918) being reported in St. Louis, Dr. Max Starkloff had local physicians on high alert and wrote about the importance of avoiding crowds. As health commissioner he closed schools, theaters, and prohibited public gatherings. The city had the lowest U.S. mortality rate.
https://ift.tt/2xU2IBR

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 10:00PM by WhileFalseRepeat
via reddit https://ift.tt/2xU2JFV
TIL After Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská lost her training facility due to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, she trained for the 1968 Olympics in the forest using potato sacks as weights and logs as beams. She medaled in all six events, four of them Gold.
https://ift.tt/28PsrMm

Submitted March 20, 2020 at 12:41AM by Catharas
via reddit https://ift.tt/2QtQVkf
TIL Cruise lines pay almost no taxes thanks to a maritime law loophole called "flags of convenience". Despite being headquartered in Miami, RCL and NCLH have all of their ships registered in the Bahamas. CCL has all of its ships registered in Panama.
https://ift.tt/390UIM9

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 11:48PM by splityoassintwo
via reddit https://ift.tt/2wm2ZwZ
TIL that double spacing after a period is no longer the standard, according to most style guides.
https://ift.tt/1SmvRH2

Submitted March 20, 2020 at 04:15AM by something-obscene
via reddit https://ift.tt/3bhDRXb
TIL about the Irish bank strikes. About a year in total, economists predicted a massive economic catastrophe; however, "The effect on the Irish economy was surprisingly small, as Irish citizens traded cheques among themselves based on mutual trust, effectively substituting them for cash."
https://ift.tt/3964Kf8

Submitted March 19, 2020 at 11:37PM by TheSomberBison
via reddit https://ift.tt/2U5czNV
TIL that John Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, invented Lincoln Logs
https://ift.tt/2qZfYgl

Submitted March 20, 2020 at 03:55AM by Alfredo412
via reddit https://ift.tt/2wopRf9
TIL when Joseph Stalin's first wife died, he was so overcome with grief he threw himself into her grave during the funeral. Later, secret policemen arrived at the funeral, looking for Stalin (at the time a wanted fugitive); he was forced to flee the service early by jumping the graveyard's fence.
https://ift.tt/2J0eFs7

Submitted March 20, 2020 at 07:52AM by Righteous_in_wrath
via reddit https://ift.tt/3ddIP8Y
TIL the rainbow lorikeet is a colorful species of parrot native to the forests of eastern Australia. Reportedly, they love showering and sometimes sleep upside down. As intelligent birds, they get easily bored and love to play with noisy toys. When they eat fermented fruit, they can get quite drunk.
https://ift.tt/1J44DiG

Submitted March 20, 2020 at 01:57PM by Sayara2020
via reddit https://ift.tt/2xNliLN
TIL a distillery on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent produces a rum that is 84.5 % alcohol by volume (169-proof). It's so strong that travelers are banned from taking a bottle back home with them.
https://ift.tt/2IZcoNP

Submitted March 20, 2020 at 02:19PM by doctor_dock
via reddit https://ift.tt/2WupHh3