TIL that the use of incubators to save premature babies was popularized by a Coney Island sideshow that exhibited preemies in incubators for decades before maternity wards adopted the technology. The
TIL tetraethyllead (TEL) - main component used to make gasoline "leaded" - was selected out of thousands compounds tested mainly for being the cheapest - just 1 part TEL in 1300 parts gasoline was fou
TIL about sea silk, a rare golden fabric made from filaments secreted by pen shells. It's been around for millennia, and is still made at small scale by a few people in Sardinia.
TIL Thomas Edison’s 1876 electric pen made tiny perforations in paper to create reusable stencils for copying documents. In 1891, Samuel O’Reilly adapted the technology into the first officially paten
TIL The 1833 Factory Act limited the hours children could work in factories, for children aged 9 to 13, they could work a maximum of 48 hours a week and 8 hours a day.
TIL the 1998 film adaptation of Scott Smith's novel "A Simple Plan" went through five different directors, including Mike Nichols (with Nicholas Cage attached), Ben Stiller, and John Boorman (who cast
TIL that Winamp's slogan "It really whips the llama's ass!" comes from the Wesley Willis song "Whip the Llama's Ass". Willis was a schizophrenic musician and artist who released over 48 albums in his
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
TIL that writer George Plimpton wore number 0 during training camp with the 1963 Detroit Lions. He wanted to find out if an average American man could actually play in the NFL. He shared his experienc
TIL that in 1881, the future King George V recorded a sighting of the mythical Flying Dutchman while sailing off the Australian coast. 13 men witnessed the vessel, with the sailor who had first sighte
TIL That 120,000 Romans died at the hands of invading Germanic barbarians in a single day at the battle of Arausio. Trapped between the Germans and a river, the Roman soldiers and camp followers were
TIL about the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In total, 60–70% of Paraguay’s population perished, resulting in a female-to-ma
TIL that at the famed NYC diner, Katz's Delicatessen, upon entering you are handed a ticket. If you lose the ticket you'll be charged a $50 ticket loss fee on top of the cost of your order.
TIL that Tenzing and Edmund reached the Everest summit in 1953. Edmund took Tenzing’s famous summit photo, while Tenzing’s offer to photograph Edmund was declined. Their expedition leader called it a
TIL of a three storey castle-like fortress located in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It appears to rise straight out of the sand dunes. Experts still do not know who built it or exactly when it was
TIL when Gallileo’s daughter Virginia took the veil, she chose the religious name Maria Celeste, in honor of the Virgin Mary and her father’s love of astronomy. She was close to her father, and as a c
TIL the Passenger Pigeon was an American bird that went extinct in 1914. Prior there was an estimated population of 3-5 Billion. Due to their population size they were used in shooting contests, some
TIL there is a book called "Shadows from the Walls of Death", which was an 1874 book that contained 86 samples of arsenic-pigmented wallpaper, which used to be common, and is so toxic that PPE must be
TIL that in 1754, residents of Windham, Connecticut woke in the middle of the night to such a terrifying noise that some thought they were under attack. They sent armed men went out with muskets to in
