American politician (1824-1864)

county in the US that forbids the sale of alcoholic beverages

Hand gestures are part of every culture in the world...most Australians would be familiar with the thumbs up, the peace sign and the bird, just to name a few.

Now an Australian anthropologist has documented a salute that's unique to our vast outback highways.

The Española Giant Tortoise was once considered beyond saving. After decades in decline, just over a dozen were left on the Galapagos island by the 1970s, most of them female.

film genre

United States federal government public work relief program part of the New Deal

A look back on the bizarre 1978 punk show that probably should never have happened.

You may see "good for you assurances" on foods that aren't, well, good for you. Here's what to look out for.

Posted in r/todayilearned by u/WalkingMyDogsLater • 465 points and 43 comments

Posted in r/todayilearned by u/redmambo_no6 • 623 points and 95 comments

19th-century English civil engineer, 1819-1891

Some people think that rare steak is still "bloody," but that red liquid has nothing to do with blood. Here's what it really is.

After 20 years, the world has finally caught up with Daft Punk, so the helmet-clad retro-futurists are embarking on a new mission: to make music breathe again

You might know that the multiplayer mode for GoldenEye 007, the seminal N64 shooter, was only added to the game late in development.

Centuries before black holes became accepted science, a fat little man in 1780s Yorkshire imagined stars so massive that even light could not escape. He predicted black holes. This is the incredible story of John Michell and his "dark stars."

major nuclear accident in the UK

American boxer

Sally Marlow turns to science to find out why so many people in Britain are addicted.

The Mytilenean Debate (also spelled "Mytilenaean Debate") in the Athenian Assembly concerned reprisals against the city-state of Mytilene, which had attempted unsuccessfully to shake off Athenian hegemony, during the Peloponnesian War. The Debate occurred…

"Folsom Prison Blues" is a song written in 1953 and first recorded in 1955 by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. The song combines elements from two popular folk styles, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash continued to use for the…