TIL the Yugoslav President Josef Broz Tito followed the custom of Serbian kings and visited parents whenever they had a ninth child, congratulated them and gave them money. He also served as godfather
TIL that Archie Karas was a gambler who received a $10,000 loan in 1992, then turned it into $40 million in 1995 by gambling, only to lose it all later that year.
TIL black holes have a theoretical maximum size of 50 billion solar masses, because if it gets too big, the stuff in the accretion disc starts coalescing into stars rather than falling past the event
TIL that Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos used a "null protocol" during demonstrations for investors, making their blood-testing machine appear to be running a test when it wasn't.
The assumption that men’s interest in sex is purely physical and always switched on is a common stereotype, but recent evidence indicates that men’s sexual desire is actually quite complex. When men f
TIL The Sultana, a steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River in 1865, was the worst maritime disaster in US history. The Mississippi River has changed course several times since the d
TIL that the Catholic Church officially censored the heliocentric theory (Earth orbiting the Sun) for over 200 years, but never placed Darwin's Theory of Evolution (The Origin of Species) on its list
TIL that from 1988 to 1991, Nintendo offered, among other things, weather forecasts, live stock trading, game cheat codes, and the ability to bet on horse races through the Family Computer Network Sys
TIL a researcher found a 1,700-year-old fragment of Homer’s Odyssey hidden in a Dutch university library, where it had been mistaken for an unremarkable 7th-century manuscript for decades.
TIL Bermuda shorts are considered appropriate business attire for men in Bermuda, when made of suit-like material and worn with knee-length socks, a dress shirt, tie, and blazer
TIL Germany charges a 25 cent deposit on every single-use drink bottle and can, and gets 98% of them back, the highest return rate of any deposit scheme in the world
TIL Elizabeth Holmes’ boyfriend founded a blood-testing startup in 2024 with eerily similar claims to Theranos. Holmes reportedly advises him from prison
TIL the dog Cheeseface from the famous National Lampoon cover “If you don’t buy this magazine we’ll shoot this dog” was shot and killed by a hunter. Whether it was intentional is unknown.
TIL Lee Sklar, one of the most prolific session bassists ever, has played on more than 2,000 albums, including records by James Taylor, BB King, Willie Nelson , Phil Collins, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton
TIL Valujet was a low cost airline that was so famous for its cost cutting and safety issues that the DoD denied its bid to fly military personnel. It merged with (and renamed itself after) smaller Ai
TIL about Khun Sa, a powerful Burmese drug lord, who was the main heroin producer 1976-1996 and had an army of up to 30k men. In 1988 he offered to sell his entire stock of heroin to Australian govern
TIL Kansas last elected a Democratic senator in 1932, and both seats have been occupied by Republicans since 1939, the longest current streak of one party controlling both of a state's Senate seats.
TIL an estimated 1 in 60 adults in Fiji is now living with HIV, up from about 1 in 167 five years ago, and the government has now declared it a national emergency.
TIL that in Whittier, Alaska, nearly all of its roughly 270 residents live in a single 14-story building, "Begich Towers", which also houses the post office, grocery store, school, and church. The tow
TIL that British 1st Dragoon Guards cavalry unit still wears coat of arms of Holy Roman Emperor as their regimental badge because Emperor Franz Joseph was their Colonel-in-chief
