TIL that in the 1860s Canada its own variant of baseball. The "Canadian Game" had 11 field players per team who all got to bat during an inning instead of a 3 out rule, 2 innings instead of 9, 5 bases
TIL a Dutch supermarket chain has "chat checkouts" for customers who aren't in a hurry and want to talk to the cashier. The first opened in 2019 to tackle loneliness among older people, and it was pop
TIL that in 1830, nearly half the students were expelled from Yale University, because they refused to draw their own geometric diagrams on the chalk board for maths exams rather than consult textbook
TIL that Al Pacino was nearly fired from The Godfather after about a week and a half of filming. Then the restaurant scene was moved up, and the studio decided to keep him based on how he performed du
TIL that the city of Opa-locka, Florida, was completely modeled after the One Thousand and One Nights folktales. Founded in 1926, the entire town features streets named Ali Baba Avenue and Aladdin Bou
TIL There are "hunger stones" in rivers in central Europe. These stones were carved during droughts to mark the water level as a warning to future generations that they will have to endure famine-rela
TIL that in 1656, a disagreement between two ministers led to the Scottish Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling being divided by an interior wall into two separate churches. The wall was demolished whe
TIL that from 2011 to 2013 a statue of Michael Jackson stood outside Fulham F.C. stadium Craven Cottage. Commissioned by the club's then chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed after Jackson's 2009 death it was not
TIL that one of the only three known artifacts ever removed from the Great Pyramid of Giza disappeared for decades and was eventually rediscovered inside a cigar box.
TIL from 1790 until 2015 bakers in Paris had to tell city hall before closing for holiday, so that half the city's bakeries shut in July and the other half in August. The rule was passed after the Rev
TIL that Phobos, the larger moon of Mars, orbits so close to the planet that tidal forces are pulling it inward. It moves about six feet closer every hundred years and will eventually crash into the p
TIL The glass of water theory was a doctrine in the early USSR that stated that satisfying sexual desires should be as simple and unimportant as drinking a glass of water.
TIL that Western European Crusaders sacked and occupied the Christian city of Constantinople in 1204, then turned Hagia Sophia, the city’s great cathedral, into a Latin Catholic church. The Byzantines
TIL about Brumbies, the free-roaming feral horses in Australia. Brumbies originated with domestic horses which escaped from their owners with some brumby lineages dating back to the early European col
TIL modern jet fighters are designed to be inherently unstable in flight - tactical Supermaneuvrability dictates aircraft have enhanced responsiveness. On the downside it means pilots are no longer fl
TIL Henry Ford chartered a ship with which he launched an amateur mission to Europe in 1915. He invited prominent peace activists to join him, and hoped to create enough publicity to prompt the bellig
TIL that it is illegal to fraudulently present yourself as a member of the clergy in Alabama. The max penalty for doing so is a $500 fine and 1 year in county jail
