TIL the second largest city in Greece, Thessaloniki, was named after a sister of Alexander the Great. The city was founded by her husband Cassander, who had Alexander's mother, wife, and son murdered.
TIL that Mark Twain was a guitar player. He apparently never mentioned this in his public writing or speeches. He played on the same guitar all his life, one made in 1835, the year of his birth, and t
TIL that during WWII, British spies stuffed dead rats with explosives to sabotage German factories. The first shipment was intercepted, but the discovery reportedly made German forces search for hundr
TIL that before filming 12 Angry Men (1957), director Sidney Lumet and cinematographer Boris Kaufman rehearsed in an actual New York City jury room, planning 365 separate shots from every angle of the
TIL that ovulation can cause one-sided abdominal pain, sometimes severe enough to interfere with daily life. It's called Mittelschmerz, from the German words for “middle” and “pain,” because it can oc
TIL about Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy held in April 1944 on Slapton Sands in Devon, England, where at least 749 American servicemen died.
TIL Kane Tanaka (1903-2022), the second oldest person to ever live, was the last known parent of a WW2 veteran to have died. Both her husband and son fought in WW2 and her son spent time in a POW camp
TIL about the indigenous Khasi people of Northeast India. They practice a strict matrilineal system where children take their mother’s surname, husbands move into their wife’s family home (the mother-
TIL New York Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra was part owner of YooHoo Company until 1981, and he is credited with making the chocolate beverage popular.
TIL up to 2000 Tutsi took refuge in Fr Athanase Seromba's church during the Rwandan genocide, but Seromba gave the go-ahead to Hutu militants to demolish his church and slaughter all within. Italian m
TIL as a student, future Fields Medalist Terry Tao helped classmate Andrew Millard adapt the nonsensical poker-like game "Cripple Mr Onion" from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Pratchett himse
TIL that after usurping power during coup, the Queen of Burma Supayalat forbid her husband King Thibaw from having a harem and executed his secret mistress, who was pregnant at the time. Thibaw was th
TIL during the production of “Is Paris Burning?” (1966), 66-year-old producer Paul Graetz snapped at 27-year-old screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola: "I was making films 40 years before you were born!”
TIL about anosognosia, a neurological condition where a person can’t recognize that they have a medical condition - even paralysis or when shown proof. It’s not denial. It’s due to disruption of brain
TIL about the GDR Children of Namibia, Black Namibian children who were raised and educated in East Germany during the South African Border War between 1979 and 1990
TIL that when Gustave Eiffel built the Eiffel Tower in 1889, he reserved a small apartment for himself near the top. It had wallpaper, comfortable furniture, and even a piano. He turned down huge offe
TIL American dentists in early 20th century were depositing extracted human teeth into their walls. I also learned that us Europeans will never experience a wonder of finding human teeth in their wall
TIL: Ladyfish larvae are transparent, ribbon-like leptocephali with no gills or red cells — they breathe through skin. They grow to 45 mm, then shrink to 18-20 mm, losing their ribbon shape, then grow
TIL NAWS China Lake is the US Navy's largest single landholding at 38% worldwide, larger than the state of Rhode Island at 1.1 million acres for weapons testing. Its name comes from Chinese prospector
TIL that the American Tomb of the Unknown Soldier once had an unidentified Vietnam veteran buried at the site, but he was later identified through DNA testing as Air Force officer Michael Blassie. His
TIl about The Jupyter Effect - 1974 book in which authors predicted that the planetary alignment on March 10, 1982 would cause widespread catastrophes on Earth. Spoiler alert - their prediction did no
TIL Halle Berry was convinced to star in X-Men: The Last Stand with a fake script that showed her character Storm saving children in Africa, then trashed it when she signed on
TIL about the High Arctic relocation, when the Canadian government transported 92 Inuit to the High Arctic as an attempt to assert their sovereignty over the Arctic Archipelago. The Inuit were left wi
TIL in 1997, 87% of Americans were confident they would go to heaven. Only 79% of the same sample were confident that Mother Teresa would go to heaven.
TIL there have been several unauthorized Harry Potter books published in Chinese include Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll, Harry Potter and the Golden Turtle, Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase and
TIL the umbrella slug (Umbraculum umbraculum) holds the world record for the most teeth in a lifetime of any animal on Earth, going through roughly 750,000 teeth over its 10-year lifespan.
TIL that Emperor Gao Yang begged his brother Gao Yan to spare his son. Gao Yan seized the throne and killed his nephew. Years later, a dying Gao Yan handed the throne to his brother Gao Zhan, begging
TIL in Budapest in 1715, most people in Budapest did not speak Hungarian(19.4%), but German(55.6%). Hungarian speakers did not become the majority until around 1880.
TIL the early days of cinema had small, simple theaters that charged a nickel for admission. Adding the Greek word odeion (a roofed-over theater), these theaters were then called "Nickelodeons"
TIL the highest scoring match in futsal history was a 76-0 Brazil dealt to Timor-Leste, in the 2006 Lusophone Games in Macao, marking an incredible average of 1.9 goals per minute. Timor-Leste's other
TIL that trucks are responsible for the vast majority of damage to roads. One fully loaded truck causes about 10,000 times as much damage as a normal car.
TIL that the earliest recorded instance of fatal crowd crush occurred in AD ~50 when a Roman soldier mooned a crowd of Jewish pilgrims at the temple in Jerusalem
TIL According to Guinness World Records, Bluey (a female Australian Cattle Dog) was the oldest-lived dog ever verified, having lived 29 years and 5 months (1910–1939) before being euthanised.
TIL since 2006 every Curling stone used in the Winter Olympics is made from Granite harvested from a single Island off the coast of Scotland & costs $1,030 to manufacture. The local company who make t
TIL that Frasier the Lion was given to Lion Country Safari in his old age and very ill. The lionesses there took care of him even to chewing his food since he was toothless and holding him up to walk.
TIL the Doorman Fallacy, which refers to the error of reducing a person's job to its most basic function and replacing it with a cost-effective automation while disregarding the broader, not directly
TIL that during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, civilians hid zoo animals in their homes to save them, including two Malaysian sun bears and three llamas. After the war, one woman called the zoo an
TIL about Akashinga, an all-female anti-poaching unit in Zimbabwe. These women patrol the bush, confront armed poachers and protect elephants and rhinos targeted by hunters. Many were recruited from v
