r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 7h ago

TIL Kevin Feige almost quit Marvel after Marvel Entertainment head Ike Perlmutter tried to force Robert Downey Jr. out of Civil War due to not wanting to pay him. Disney CEO Bob Iger responded by reshuffling the corporate system so that Fiege would answer directly to him rather than Perlmutter.

fandomwire.com

14.0k Upvotes

719 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Long__Ground • 15h ago

TIL that in 1978, a Manhattan skyscraper (Citicorp building) was found to be at risk of collapsing in a strong wind. It was secretly strengthened/welded back together at night for 3months while people worked inside during the day. The public didn't find out for 17yrs

edition.cnn.com

11.0k Upvotes

249 comments

r/todayilearned • u/andywuzhere1 • 16h ago

TIL Beverly Eckert, the woman who consoled her husband in his final moments over the phone while he was inside the South Tower, passed away eight years later in a plane crash just six days after meeting with the president to advocate for the victim's families of 9/11

npr.org

16.7k Upvotes

227 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SystematicApproach • 14h ago

TIL the term “devil’s advocate” comes from the Catholic Church, where an official was tasked with arguing against someone being declared a saint, including finding natural explanations for alleged miracles.

newadvent.org

7.3k Upvotes

189 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PhotographStunning28 • 7h ago

TIL about the Mpemba Effect : Very hot liquids or colloids (such as ice cream) can freeze more quickly than colder ones for similar volumes and surrounding conditions. Named after Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba, who discovered it when freezing a hot ice cream mixture in a cookery class.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

80 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ellokah • 16h ago

TIL that Henryk Siwiak was not a victim of the 9/11 attacks, but they are the reason he was where he died. The attacks shut down his construction site that morning, so he took a night job across Brooklyn and was shot on the way. He is the only recorded homicide and last person killed in NYC that day

en.wikipedia.org

8.1k Upvotes

204 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • 1h ago

TIL that after 31 North Korean commandos of Unit 124 infiltrated Seoul in 1968 to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung-hee, they were exposed after releasing four woodcutters who alerted authorities.South Korea later formed Unit 684 to retaliate by training 31 men to assassinate Kim Il-sung

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Depressed_Cat_00 • 19h ago

TIL Japan built flood-control shafts large enough to fit the Statue of Liberty. The system can pump 200 cubic meters of water every second, is used only about 7 times a year, and still prevented an estimated ¥148.4 billion in flood damage during its first 18 years.

tokyoupdates.metro.tokyo.lg.jp

15.1k Upvotes

353 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Parks714 • 13h ago

TIL: America's first paramedics were a group of Black Vietnam war medics from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who formed the Freedom House Ambulance Service in 1967. Prior to this, medical emergencies in the US were handled by funeral home hearses rather than trained medical staff.

healthforce.ucsf.edu

2.9k Upvotes

79 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinosaruman • 22h ago

TIL modern beekeeping rests on a single measurement discovered by a Philadelphia clergyman in 1851: leave bees a gap between about 6 and 9 mm and they will neither build comb in the space nor glue it shut — which is the only reason a beekeeper can lift frames out of a hive instead of destroying it.

en.wikipedia.org

27.7k Upvotes

335 comments

r/todayilearned • u/moomgish • 7h ago

TIL about long term nuclear waste warning messages. intended to tell civilizations in the far future to stay away from nuclear waste burial sites - around 10,000 years from now

en.wikipedia.org

755 Upvotes

112 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LtSoundwave • 18h ago

TIL the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien once gave a protester the “Shawinigan Handshake”, a chokehold that became a Canadian heritage moment.

cbc.ca

4.8k Upvotes

442 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 11h ago

TIL a scrap of alleged human skin found on the north door of the ancient St. Botolph's Church in Hadstock, England, rumored to be “Daneskin” from a Viking who was flayed alive, has been DNA tested and it turned out to be cowhide.

saffronwaldenmuseum.org

1.2k Upvotes

53 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 20h ago

TIL that tabletop game company Steve Jackson Games sued the US Secret Service and won, after the company was raided and materials for role-playing game GURPS Cyberpunk were seized because its writer was a suspect in a real hacking case.

en.wikipedia.org

7.2k Upvotes

110 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MediumStrange • 1d ago

TIL Columbus, OH is often used as the testing ground for new products by companies because it is the "perfectly generic American city" with little in the way of culture or demographics to seperate it from the country as a whole.

axios.com

17.7k Upvotes

1.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/fincog • 18h ago

TIL Nazi Germany abducted an estimated 200,000 Polish children for forced “Germanization,” separating them from their families and erasing their Polish identities. Only 10 to 15 percent of those abducted returned to their homes after the war.

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

220 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DaTruSpork • 1h ago

TiL that Nicolas Cage went on a quest for the holy grail

indiewire.com

• Upvotes

62 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Idontknowofname • 5h ago

TIL that the children's television series LazyTown is from Iceland but was originally produced in English before being dubbed to dozens of other languages, including Icelandic.

en.wikipedia.org

278 Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ddmayne • 1d ago

TIL George Washington placed a $10 reward for the return of a runaway slave. Oney Judge escaped in Philadelphia in 1796 because she did not want to return to Virginia where she would be "given" as a wedding present into the Custis-Law household. Washington asked Sec of Treasury for help finding her.

en.wikipedia.org

11.4k Upvotes

775 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Parks714 • 15h ago

TIL: Jet pilots can have a constant sunrise or sunset by flying west at a high enough groundspeed to match the Earth's rotation.

flyawaysimulation.com

1.5k Upvotes

156 comments

r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • 12h ago

TIL that the phrase "the mother of all X" entered popular American vocabulary in 1990 after Saddam Hussein referred to the beginning of the Gulf War as "the mother of all battles." "The mother of all" was named Word of the Year in 1991, and originates from the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636 AD.

en.wikipedia.org

876 Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OmegaLiquidX • 15h ago

TIL about "Bill the Bastard", a legendary Australian war horse thought to be unrideable. Michael Shanahan became the first person to ride him thanks to patience and lots of liquorice allsorts.

thewarhorsememorial.org

1.2k Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ObligationOne3727 • 5h ago

TIL that Tulsi Giri, who was prime minister of Nepal multiple times, was a Jehovah Witness.

en.wikipedia.org

164 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 11h ago

TIL The record for the largest paying concert audience for a female artist is still held by Tina Turner's 1988 concert at Maracanã Stadium in Rio De Janeiro with 180,000 spectators.

en.wikipedia.org

439 Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 11h ago

TIL the Fremont Canning Company's founder Dan Gerber was looking for a baby face for its baby food. It held a contest in 1928, and it chose Dorothy Hope Smith's drawing. Every year, Gerber hosts a contest for a Gerber Baby, the prize in 2026 was $50k.

en.wikipedia.org

378 Upvotes

8 comments

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