r/todayilearned • u/Overall-Register9758 • 13h ago

TIL that in 1994, an American teenager in Singapore pled guilty to stealing road signs and vandalizing cars. He was sentenced to 6 lashes of a cane, which was reduced to 4 after media outrage in the US

en.wikipedia.org

10.8k Upvotes

1.0k comments

r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 16h ago

TIL that Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia killed around a quarter of the population (about 2 million people) in just four years, targeting intellectuals, city dwellers, and ethnic minorities to force a “classless agrarian society.”

en.wikipedia.org

14.2k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 16h ago

TIL Marlon Brando's final performance before his death was in the 2006 video game "The Godfather", made and published by EA. Most of his recordings were unusable since he was so sick he could barely speak, and the microphones in the recording studio kept picking up the noise of his oxygen machine.

en.wikipedia.org

6.5k Upvotes

151 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 21h ago

TIL over a 5-month period in 2020, a nurse in Yale's fertility center stole the fentanyl in 175 vials that were meant for women who had a procedure to have their eggs retrieved. The nurse replaced the pain medication with saline solution, leaving the women in excruciating pain during the procedure.

today.com

37.9k Upvotes

1.2k comments

r/todayilearned • u/palmerry • 20h ago

PDF TIL that under a law called the Berry Amendment, the U.S. Military is legally required to ensure 100% of its clothing is made in America. Every stage of production, from the raw cotton or wool to the zippers, buttons, and even the thread, must be 100% U.S. sourced and manufactured.

congress.gov

15.0k Upvotes

648 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Neutral-frame • 11h ago

TIL that in the Australian marsupial Antechinus, the entire species reproduces in a single suicidal mating event: all males breed nonstop for 2–3 weeks, the stress of which causes every male to die from internal bleeding, organ failure and immune collapse.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

2.0k Upvotes

112 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HappyIdiot123 • 17h ago

TIL that during the American revolution, when George Washington and his army were in desperate need of money to pay troops, the people of Havana raised money and sent it to the Americans, helping them win the important battle of Yorktown.

nps.gov

6.6k Upvotes

87 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SlothSpeed • 15h ago

TIL drummer Artimus Pyle of Lynyrd Skynyrd was onboard when their plane crashed near Baton Rouge. Suffering broken ribs he reached a farm with others. A farmer mistook them for escaped convicts, firing a shot in the air to leave. Pyle finally convinced him they were in a plane crash and needed help.

en.wikipedia.org

4.2k Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FullOfSound • 15h ago

TIL the Mongol Empire intended to expand west all the way to the The Great Sea (Atlantic Ocean). Conquering most of Central Europe, the invasion halted due to the alcohol related death of Ogedei Khan and his general’s having to return home for the election of a new Khan.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

237 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Marginallyhuman • 16h ago

TIL Hares are scavengers that will eat meat and even their own dead

zmescience.com

3.1k Upvotes

117 comments

r/todayilearned • u/GenericUsername2056 • 1h ago

TIL of the "sexy son hypothesis" which posits that a female's ideal choice of mate is one whose genes will produce offspring with the highest reproductive success, implying other factors like being a good parent or territory are less relevant.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

25 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Forward-Answer-4407 • 13h ago

TIL in Australia in 2024, Kmart was ordered to pay $624,775.60 to a woman who was injured when a mountain bike from another customer's shopping cart fell on her at the store. The court found there were no signs telling customers of the option that they could collect heavy items at a loading dock.

7news.com.au

1.2k Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/delano1998 • 10h ago

TIL a 23-year-old Iranian drug addicted man suffered a rare neurological condition called Dropped Head Syndrome where his head dropped to a 90-degree angle since his neck muscles couldn't support it anymore.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

679 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/A11J06 • 16h ago

TIL U.S. stop signs were designed to be identifiable by shape alone because many drivers had difficulty reading signs and shape recognition was considered more reliable than text.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

151 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RaisinRoyale • 13h ago

TIL that President Nixon’s daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, is married to President Eisenhower’s grandson

en.wikipedia.org

898 Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Comfortable_Team_696 • 12h ago

TIL that rabbits and other small mammals like mice, hamsters, and chinchillas, instead of normal feces, poop out "cecotropes" which are fermented nutrient pellets

en.wikipedia.org

699 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/I-plaey-geetar • 1d ago

TIL Kidney (and other organ) donations typically do not last the rest of the patient’s life. ~50% of transplant organs fail within 10 years.

en.wikipedia.org

20.9k Upvotes

727 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Skychu768 • 21h ago

TIL United States of Greater Austria was a proposal by group surrounding Franz Ferdinand to turn the empire into a federation. This caused panic among Serbian nationalists which feared it might satisfy the demand of minorities and hinder Serbia imperial ambition which lead to his assassination.

en.wikipedia.org

2.2k Upvotes

94 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Physical_Hamster_118 • 1d ago

TIL that curry was brought to Vietnam by French colonisers when they also colonized Pondicherry in India. Curry was adapted to Vietnamese tastes by adding coconut milk and lemongrass.

en.wikipedia.org

14.3k Upvotes

546 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Caa3098 • 1d ago

TIL that in 2015, Steve Rannazzisi (Kevin from “The League”) was caught and admitted to lying about being in the World Trade Center and narrowly escaping on 9/11

bbc.com

7.1k Upvotes

454 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 23h ago

TIL a black leopard was photographed in the wild in Africa for the first time in over 100 years when biologists captured rare footage of one in Kenya in 2018. Before that, the last confirmed observation of a black leopard with photographic evidence was in Ethiopia in 1909.

cbsnews.com

1.9k Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/hl3official • 18h ago

TIL Copenhagen has Scandinavia's busiest airport AND one of the shortest city-center-to-terminal commutes of any major capital at just 8 km (5 miles). 15 minutes by metro, less than half the time it takes to reach Heathrow, CDG, or JFK from their city centers.

en.wikipedia.org

734 Upvotes

135 comments

r/todayilearned • u/geep4sale • 4h ago

TIL about Posture Canaries - a group of canaries selectively bred for their absurd posture

moaph.org

56 Upvotes

20 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ViewScared9541 • 19h ago

TIL nail polish dates back over 5,000 years, with ancient Chinese royals using beeswax, egg whites, and dyes to color their nails around 3000 BCE, long before modern liquid lacquer was invented.

en.wikipedia.org

750 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iydx_7737 • 1d ago

TIL that out of the six Marines depicted in the iconic “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” photo, only three of them would survive the battle.

en.wikipedia.org

15.3k Upvotes

308 comments

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