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
TIL that Today’s Health Magazine publisher J.I. Rodale was on the Dick Cavett show. He told Cavett that he never felt better and that he decided to live to be one hundred. When Cavett was talking to h
TIL Pan Am didn't have domestic routes within the US, it mostly operated international routes. The Civil Aeronautics Board banned the airline from establishing domestic routes. After deregulation in 1
TIL that the origin stories of characters such as Iron Man or the Punisher, which were previously tied to the Vietnam War, have now been retconned to take place during the Siancong War, a fictional co
TIL in 1849, Henry Wirz, a convicted Swiss fraudster, fled to the US, where he became a quack doctor and slave plantation overseer. He joined the Confederate Army in the Civil War, and ran the cruel A
TIL that scientists reintroduced the Whooping Crane to an extinct migration route by guiding them through the air with an ultralight airplane they imprinted on. The pilot had to wear a crane costume t
TIL that for Terminator 2, stunt pilot Chuck Tamburro flew a real helicopter under an overpass at 60 knots with about 5 ft of clearance above and 4 ft on each side; when camera operators refused to fi
TIL that Lennox Lewis, Gene Tunney, Rocky Marciano and Vitali Klitschko are the four heavyweight boxing champions to have retired as champion. Of these four Lewis and Marciano are the two to hold a wi
TIL the oldest known share certificate in the world, dated 1288, gave the Bishop of Västerås a 1/8th stake in a Swedish copper mine — whose successor company, Stora Enso, is still listed on the stock
TIL an elderly man in Italy lived for a year with an exposed brain due to scalp cancer that ate through his skull. He had no neurological symptoms except numbness, and his only treatments were wound c
TIL that Phryne, a wealthy 4th-century BC Greek courtesan, was tried for impiety in Athens. According to later accounts, she revealed her body before the jury, while her lawyer Hypereides argued that
TIL Nazi Germany forced occupied Greece to accept an interest-free loan in 1942. Germany began repaying it in April 1943, but repayments ceased after the war, leaving 476 million Reichsmarks unpaid. G
TIL that Joe Weider got Arnold Schwarzenegger his first movie role by passing him off as a German Shakespearean actor, even though Arnold barely spoke English.
TIL that the inhabitants of Madagascar (Malagasy people) are the descendants of approximately 30 Indonesian mothers who sailed on a transoceanic voyage 1200 years ago.
TIL that William Shatner offered to wrestle a real Bengal tiger that had been brought onto the set of Star Trek: The Original Series, only to quickly back down once he actually saw the animal up close
TIL that Larry Boucher, the father of SCSI, wanted the name to be pronounced as "sexy." The technology firm's Dal Allan mispronounced it as "scuzzy," though, and it stuck.
TIL In 1893 an envelope cutter named Walter Cowles was drinking at a tavern in London when he boasted he could fit a billiard ball in his mouth and close it fully. He inserted the ball in his mouth bu
TIL that on a 1977 school trip to Washington DC, a senior made a bet to get his classmates and himself set up for an unannounced tour of the White House. With a local payphone he gradually convinced o
TIL that Greg Maddux and Tony Gwynn faced each other 103 times in their careers, and Gwynn never struck out against Maddux. He hit .429 against Maddux in his career.
TIL Japanese idol Momoka Tojo was forced by her agency to post a "good night" selfie on X every day for a full year as a "purification" punishment after leaking a photo with her boyfriend. She complie
TIL that the HMHS Britannic could survive with six of its watertight compartments flooded, unlike the RMS Titanic’s four. And the damage done by the naval mine in 1916 was limited. However, the Britan
TIL during World War II, Empress Teimei, the mother of Emperor Hirohito, openly opposed Japan’s involvement in the war. Beginning in 1943, she worked behind the scenes with her third son Takamatsu to
TIL Cabin in the Woods (2011) was meant to have a tie-in with the Valve video game Left 4 Dead 2 (2009), serving as an additional DLC level for the game. The collaboration fell through due to MGM's fi
