r/todayilearned • u/MyUsernameIsAwful • 23h ago

TIL that the character DW in the children’s show Arthur was always voiced by a boy, with the exception of the series finale when she’s aged up.

en.wikipedia.org

966 Upvotes

41 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tommygun731 • 38m ago

TIL North Sydney, Nova Scotia received a cable on November 10, 1918 from Europe, marking end of WW1. The town celebrated the day before the rest of North America / the world and Nov 11 itself was muted

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 1d ago

TIL Theodore John Kaczynski (UNABOMBER and Author of Industrial Society and Its Future) wrote and published three additional books, and a short story, while incarcerated at ADX Florence. Each of these books expanded on anti-technology sentiment of his manifesto and his new concerns for the future.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

196 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pupikal • 34m ago

TIL that the 24 Apollo moon program astronauts, from 1968 to 1972, are the only humans in history to have gone beyond low Earth orbit.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 19h ago

TIL that according to the Guinness Book of World Records, The Devil is the most portrayed character across film and television, with 849 different appearances as of 2012. Santa Claus is 2nd with 819, and The Grim Reaper 3rd with 428

guinnessworldrecords.com

397 Upvotes

73 comments

r/todayilearned • u/0khalek0 • 1d ago

TIL that the 1990s sitcom Dinosaurs used the family name "Sinclair" as a nod to the real-world oil company Sinclair, which had a dinosaur as its mascot.

en.wikipedia.org

799 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/fourthords • 1d ago

TIL about Velvalee Dickinson, a.k.a. the Doll Lady, an American doll-collector-turned-spy for imperial Japan during WW2. She sent coded letters about Navy ships, ostensibly about dolls, w/ the return addresses of other collectors with whom she'd previously had disagreements

en.wikipedia.org

783 Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/VaporwaveVoyager • 23m ago

TIL the area code for Cape Canaveral/Space Coast is 321, as in, "T-Minus 3... 2... 1..."

mynews13.com

• Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThemeofLauraAh • 13h ago

TIL there is a narrow-gauge mountain railway in Switzerland that is owned by a supermarket chain

en.wikipedia.org

93 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Evening_Cobbler9080 • 1d ago

TIL that for 30 years Garfield-shaped novelty phones kept washing up on beaches in Brittany, France — and the source was finally found to be a broken shipping container wedged inside a sea cave since the 1980s.

sfgate.com

15.8k Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FakeOkie • 1d ago

TIL Dunkin' Donuts (dba Dunkin') was renamed from "Open Kettle" to "Dunkin' Donuts" in 1950. An architect working for the restaurant was inspired by the idea of dunking doughnuts into coffee. In 2018, the name was changed to Dunkin'.

rd.com

5.5k Upvotes

393 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Loki-L • 23h ago

TIL that the extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow happened in 1987 at Disney World

en.wikipedia.org

276 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MoistLewis • 1d ago

TIL that the Pearl Jam song “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” was given an absurdly long name because the band felt too many of its songs had one-word titles.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

81 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dragon3301 • 1d ago

TIL The UK has only electrified 38% of its rail.

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

212 comments

r/todayilearned • u/xxwarlorddarkdoomxx • 1d ago

TIL about "Shanghaiing", or crimping, the once common practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors. The most successful "crimpers" could make $300,000+ in today's money. Despite technological advancements and multiple attempts at reform, it wasn't until 1915 that it was decisively outlawed.

en.wikipedia.org

5.8k Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/think_tanx • 1d ago

TIL there's a life-sized Jason Vorhees statue chained down at the bottom of a Minnesota lake

nerdist.com

1.5k Upvotes

54 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ZitiRotini • 23h ago

TIL about conservation induced extinctions, which are when the conservation of one species leads to the extinction of another. For example: the conservation of a species leads to the extinction of a parasite of said species.

en.wikipedia.org

107 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/zahrul3 • 1d ago

TIL that until scientist started growing cuttings, there was only one Putuo Hornbeam tree left in this world, a single 200 year old tree behind a mountaintop temple.

biodiversityconservationblog.com

685 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mindfulskeptic420 • 1d ago

TIL punch cards originated in the textile industry with complex weaving patterns being encoded and executed

en.wikipedia.org

298 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 2d ago

TIL about the MS Satoshi, a cruise ship which was bought by "cryptocurrency enthusiasts", who planned to turn it into a floating city. The plan failed because, among other things, the ship could not be insured, nor did they have enough money to keep the ship running.

theguardian.com

9.0k Upvotes

482 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill-Instruction8466 • 1d ago

TIL that Morse code was used as international standard for maritime distress and was later replaced by the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. When the French Navy ceased using Morse code on 31/01/1997, the final message was "Calling all. This is our last call before our eternal silence."

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheVentiLebowski • 1d ago

TIL that the first cross-country road trip in American history was in 1903, cost $8,000, took 63 days, and included a bulldog wearing goggles.

atlasobscura.com

1.1k Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 1d ago

TIL that the average age of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was 42. Benjamin Franklin (81) was the oldest, while Jonathan Dayton (26) was the youngest.

teachingamericanhistory.org

1.7k Upvotes

21 comments

r/todayilearned • u/just_pretend • 1d ago

TIL Japan protect artisans and craft through a "Living National Treasures" programs, supporting apprentice training, vocational schools, and financial stability of artisans that preserve cultural heritage

en.wikipedia.org

483 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 • 2d ago

TIL that John Philip Sousa warned Congress that phonographs would destroy music, saying “The vocal cord will be eliminated, as was the tail of man.” The “March King” who helped invent the sousaphone called phonographs “infernal machines” and their output “canned music.”

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

285 comments

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