TIL that CERN physicists wrote parody lyrics for Howie Day’s 2004 hit “Collide” from the perspective of a proton in the Large Hadron Collider. Day saw their parody on Twitter and contacted CERN himsel
TIL of the Elaine Massacre of 1919 in Arkansas. Over three days black people were hunted and killed by whites until Federal troops arrived. Afterwards 12 black men were sentenced to the electric chair
TIL of Don Ritchie; a man who lived close to a notorious suicide spot who officially prevented 180 suicide attempts. He would approach an individual and simply ask, "Can I help you in some way?"
TIL the US dropped about 7.6 million tons of bombs across Indochina during the Vietnam War, which is more than 3x the amount U.S. Air Force dropped in the European and Pacific theaters of WW2 combined
TIL British Intelligence had a special, bugged luxury complex during WWII where they kept high profile Nazi POW’s, just left a bunch of alcohol out, and waited for them to start spilling secrets as th
TIL that the identity of the youngest Olympic medalist in history is unknown. The Dutch coxed pair rowing team grabbed a random kid from crowd as their coxswain to cut weight. They won gold.
TIL that MLB Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was recruited for football by Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma, all of whom were willing to break the color barrier for him. He declined Alabama and Georgia as
TIL that in 393 CE Boxing (Pugilatus) was banned in Rome because of too much brutality. Using gloves (Cestus) with nails attached, with neither weight categories nor time limits, the bouts would last
TIL the plan for organising Winston Churchill’s funeral began 12 years before his death, such was the logistics involved. However, the plan had to keep being changed, as Churchill kept outliving his p
TIL that Charondas, a Greek lawmaker, issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Athenian Assembly would be executed. When 1 day after hunting, he arrived at the Assembly with his knife sti
TIL New Yorkers leave over $100 million a year in unclaimed 5 cent bottle deposits ($139 million in 2021). Until 2009 the beer and soda distributors kept every cent of it. The state now takes 80% and
TIL that ancient Assyrians used a “substitute king” ritual when an omen threatened the king. The real king went into hiding while a substitute took his place, and the substitute was later killed.
TIL that the Babylonians calculated the value of the square root of two to six decimal places more than 1500 years BC; this estimate was not bettered for nearly three thousand years, despite algorithm
TIL that since the inception of the NCAA women's tournament in 1982, current LSU coach Kim Mulkey has participated as a player or coach every year except 1985 and 2003.
TIL there was a historical Daoist practice called "Huanjing bunao" (lit. returning the semen to replenish the brain), involving maintaining arousal for an extended plateau phase while avoiding orgasm.
TIL that the Menendez brothers are visible in the background of a 1990 Mark Jackson basketball card, having bought courtside tickets during a lavish spending spree following the murder of their parent
TIL a 1963 Barbie outfit "Barbie Baby-Sits" came with a bathroom scale set at 50 kg (110 pounds). To scale Barbie is 1.75 m (5'9"), so this is underweight. It also included a book titled How to Lose W
TIL that during WWII, the U.S. government outlawed pre-sliced bread. The ban was supposed to save packaging materials and keep bread prices down. Instead, it enraged consumers, caused a bread knife sh
TIL in Norway everyone's income, net wealth and tax paid are published online and anyone can search them. But you have to log in, the person you look up can see your name in their search history withi
TIL all five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, were tragically killed in action on November 13, 1942 while serving aboard USS Juneau (CL-52), marking the biggest blow to any one family in U.S. wa
TIL Elizabeth Holmes led investors to believe Theranos's blood-testing technology had been deployed by the U.S. military on the battlefield. It had never actually been deployed there.
TIL that after a plane crash in 2023, four children between the ages of 11 months old and 13 years old were left to fend for themselves in the Amazon rainforest. They were able to survive for 40 days
