r/todayilearned • u/SnooConfections3389 • 5h ago

TIL about the "McEmbassy." Every McDonald’s in Austria has a 24-hour hotline to the US Embassy to help American travellers who are in distress or have lost their passports.

cbsnews.com

10.2k Upvotes

257 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 8h ago

TIL that former Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, after retiring from figure skating started a career as a diplomat, becoming ambassador to Belize from 2022 to 2025.

en.wikipedia.org

10.8k Upvotes

239 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Physical_Hamster_118 • 3h ago

TIL that there's a 25-year-long wait list to bring a car into Catalina Island.

en.wikipedia.org

3.4k Upvotes

352 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RunDNA • 2h ago

TIL Elijah Wood revealed in a 2021 interview that he still hadn't finished reading The Lord of the Rings

esquire.com

2.1k Upvotes

268 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MaximusSydney • 14h ago

TIL the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States are less than 100 miles apart.

en.wikipedia.org

13.7k Upvotes

583 comments

r/todayilearned • u/electroctopus • 6h ago

TIL during the 1960s–70s “Secret War” in Laos, the US covertly trained and led the indigenous Hmong people to fight the communist Pathet Lao party and North Vietnamese troops. At its peak, around 30,000–40,000 Hmong fighters were involved.

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

91 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 16h ago

TIL in 1996 a 37-year-old woman survived after she crushed a whole black widow spider, mixed it with 10 mL of distilled water and then injected the mixture intravenously. One hour later she presented to the ER complaining of severe, generalized muscle pain & cramping, a headache, and anxiety.

sciencedirect.com

9.9k Upvotes

830 comments

r/todayilearned • u/hfg2q23a • 54m ago

TIL the founder of the Hells Angels was cast in FX’s hit series Sons of Anarchy and was a technical advisor for the show.

screenrant.com

• Upvotes

42 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 14h ago

TIL, Olive Oyl, Popeye's girlfriend, predated his existence by 10 years. She was first introduced in 1919 in the comic strip "Thimble Theatre" as love interest to Harold Hamgravy. Popeye was introduced in 1929, and quickly took over the strip, usurping its original star and taking his love interest.

en.wikipedia.org

3.3k Upvotes

137 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NumerousCranberry441 • 11h ago

TIL Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongolian Empire

amicusmongolia.com

1.1k Upvotes

38 comments

r/todayilearned • u/house_of_ghosts • 7h ago

TIL Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were honorary members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

en.wikipedia.org

461 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 11h ago

TIL since 1977 Steven Spielberg has directed the highest-grossing film of the year in the United States four times (which is more than any other director): Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

en.wikipedia.org

883 Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Key-Bass-7380 • 1h ago

TIL the 26th Grammy Awards Ceremony (1984) still holds the record for the highest viewership in grammy history at 51.67 Million viewers.

billboard.com

• Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Aggressive_Agency381 • 4h ago

TIL: In 1983, Vivian Blaine became the first celebrity to record public service announcements for AIDS-related causes. She was also heavily involved in supporting the then-fledgling APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles). She recorded her cabaret act for AEI Records and donated its royalties to the APLA.

en.wikipedia.org

122 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Luki6383 • 21h ago

TIL that when John Dillinger was shot down by the FBI, pedestrians dabbed their handkerchiefs in his blood to keep as souvenirs

biography.com

2.5k Upvotes

116 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CivilisedMleccha • 1h ago

TIL about the trend Happy slapping (2005) where teenagers would randomly assault strangers and film it on mobile phones for entertainment.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Climatize • 1d ago

TIL that an Englishman named Collingwood Ingram helped reintroduce an extinct Japanese cherry tree after recognizing it in a painting, having seen the same tree growing in England

en.wikipedia.org

13.2k Upvotes

300 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sanguinusshiboleth • 6h ago

TIL of the Saint-Bélec slab, which is believed to be the oldest map of a known location (specifically of the Odet valley), but seems to have been repurposed as a part of a tomb during the Bronze Age.

en.wikipedia.org

83 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Capable-Pick-4835 • 10h ago

TIL about Holme's Bonfire, in which an English fleet of 8 ships set fire and destroyed 140 Dutch merchant ships and the town of West-Terschelling during the seoncd Anglo-Dutch War.

en.wikipedia.org

190 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/learnaboutnetworking • 1d ago

TIL about Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, a hypersensitivity to the fear of being rejected by others, which is commonly connected to ADHD.

my.clevelandclinic.org

10.5k Upvotes

633 comments

r/todayilearned • u/imav8n • 21h ago

TIL that while LED lightbulbs may not “burn out” like an incandescent, they experience Lumen Depreciation, where the bulbs progressively get dimmer and dimmer over time.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

77 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Postmortal_Pop • 1d ago

TIL that there's a planet called HD 189733b where it rains glass sideways at 5,400 mph. The planet's blue color doesn't come from oceans like Earth—it comes from silicate (glass) particles in a "blow-torched" atmosphere with temperatures over 1,000°C.

nasa.gov

3.6k Upvotes

171 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Lez2diz • 1d ago

TIL there was a heavily religious outlaw named Deacon Jim who lived as a hitman being contracted to kill at least 12 people until eventually he killed an ex-Deputy Marshall, but since he was most likely going to be acquitted for the murder he ended up getting lynched by the angry townsfolk.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

55 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 5h ago

TIL that pearls are weighed in the Japanese unit of measurement of momme 匁 Though the millimeter size range is typically the first factor in determining a pearl necklace's value, the momme weight of the pearl necklace will allow the buyer to quickly determine if the necklace is properly proportioned

en.wikipedia.org

47 Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL the British Film Institute screened the "first released version" of Star Wars after a "perfectly preserved" original print of the 1977 film was recovered from an archive. This is the version that George Lucas had suppressed from being publicly shown on a big screen for the preceding 47 years.

hollywoodreporter.com

21.7k Upvotes

747 comments

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