Posted in r/todayilearned by u/MegaZeroX7 • 9,690 points and 266 comments

Genghis Khan (born Temüjin Borjigin,c. 1162 – August 18, 1227), also officially Genghis Emperor, was the founder and first Great Khan and Emperor of the Mongol Empire, which became the second largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came…

Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960, is a variation of the game of chess invented by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer announced this new game variation on June 19, 1996, in La Plata, Argentina. Fischer random chess employs the same…

Legion d'honneur recipient

How do elephants mourn? A touching story from Mali illustrates elephants' complex social structures.

American Air Force officer

Take a good look at these giraffe nap pics, because you won't often catch a giraffe sleeping. In fact, despite being the tallest animal, giraffes have the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, sleeping an average of just 30 minutes per day. And when…

What does 4-F mean? 4-F or 4F is a military classification begun in the Civil War to classify men without Four Front teeth to open gunpowder packets.

In The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI, Betty Medsger reveals the long-secret details of the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, an activist group that raided …

Posted in r/todayilearned by u/CapriciousSalmon • 3,337 points and 150 comments

Posted in r/todayilearned by u/potatoes4u • 1,308 points and 181 comments

Ireland has one of the highest percentage of red heads in Europe but did the red hair gene come from the Vikings or the Celts?

Billionaire Bill Gates shares his "indulgences" with TV host Ellen DeGeneres.

Imperial Roman senator

Lessons from “expert talkers” could make all the difference when helping a person in crisis.

While Italian sports cars get a bad rap for being fickle, nobody has ever accused the Porsche 911 of having major reliability issues, and J.D. Power, publisher of the legendary reliability rankings, seems to confirm that, having named the 911 the most reliable…

Herpes viruses reactivate in more than half of crew aboard Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions, according to NASA research published in Frontiers in Microbiology. While only a small ...

In 2013, 19 prisons in the Netherlands closed because the country didn't have enough criminals to fill them. Now, five more are slated to close their doors by the end of the summer, according to

How cougars find each other in a vast landscape of mountains, raging water, thick forests, and rocky bluffs is one of life’s great mysteries for those of us who study mountain lions. I’ve spent many long hours contemplating this subject, and here's what I've…

It's been a Monty Python world lately -- and we're not even talking about the absurdity and silliness of current events, such as balloon boys and confessional celebrities.

The Celebrity Equinox's kitchen staff is preparing 10,000 meals, with guests even pitching in to help in the aftermath of the hurricane.