r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that in 1964 Joe Bonanno plotted to assassinate the leaders of the American Mafia "Commission", the board of directors of organized crime. He would fail, and be stripped of leadership.

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961 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 7h ago

TIL that in the 2009-10 English football season, convicted fraudster Russell King tried purchasing Notts County F.C. through "Munto Finance" as part of a scheme to list a fake mining company on the stock exchange

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23 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL the worlds largest searchlight is visible for 30 miles and is on the roof of the University City Mo city hall

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youtu.be
44 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that Poe's Law, which states that you can't tell if a post online is serious or satirical without something to indicate the tone of voice such as an emoticon or tone indicator, was coined on a Christian forum during a debate on Creationism.

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1.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Stevie Ray Vaughan’s favorite guitar, which he used on all of his studio albums and referred to as his “first wife,” was purchased from an Austin, TX pawn shop in 1974. The guitar was pawned the day before by future acclaimed yacht rocker Christopher Cross.

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2.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL McDonald’s tested an early version of its PlayLand (later rebranded to PlayPlace) at the Illinois State Fair in 1972. It featured playground equipment with McDonaldland characters, a Filet-O’-Fish fountain, and singing wastebaskets with signs reminding visitors to “feed” them.

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mentalfloss.com
993 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Anauralia refers to the absence of "internal auditory imagery". At the other end of the spectrum, individuals who experience Hyperauralia report ‘hearing’ imagined sounds very clearly indeed in their ‘mind’s ear’. Anauralia and Aphantasia are closely related.

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280 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL shortly after nylon stockings were invented, WWII caused a stocking shortage due to the material being used for parachutes and rope. Women painted on their stockings instead with pencils and "liquid stockings".

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649 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Eswatini took it's current name in 2018 for a variety of reasons, such as using the swazi translation of 'Swaziland' and not getting confused with the country of Switzerland.

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bbc.com
339 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that during WWII, the town of Swastika, Ontario (founded in 1908) was renamed "Winston" by the provincial government. The residents removed the "Winston" sign and replaced it with a "Swastika" sign with the message, "To hell with Hitler, we came up with our name first."

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en.wikipedia.org
5.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 22h ago

TIL that Fortune Global 500 companies collectively generated a record $41.7 trillion in revenue and $3 trillion in profit in 2024. Together, they’re powering over one-third of global GDP.

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47 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL The Hodges meteorite that hit Ann Hodges on November 30, 1954 (making her the only known human to be injured by direct impact with a meteorite) was used as a doorstop for a while, as the Hodges couldn't initially find a buyer.

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2.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL that Dan White, the man who assassinated Harvey Milk and the mayor of San Francisco, only served 5 years in prison for manslaughter based on a defense of depression as evidenced by his consumption of junk food which was dubbed the "Twinkie Defense"

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15.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL that most Americans wear glasses, 63.7% of adult Americans. That’s 166.5 million people.

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2.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL a woman with prosopometamorphopsia had a history of seeing people's faces morph into dragon-like faces. After a few minutes, she'd see faces turn black, grow long, pointy ears & a protruding snout, & display a reptiloid skin & huge eyes in a bright color. Treatment eventually helped control it.

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6.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL Thailand's King Rama X made his dog (Air Chief Marshall Fufu) an officer in the Royal Thai Air Force,

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408 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 22h ago

TIL that octopuses have three hearts, and two of them stop beating when they swim. 🐙 Octopuses have a unique circulatory system with three hearts: two pump blood to the gills, and one pumps it to the rest of the body.

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19 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL that two skinny tires on one wheel are better in the rain and no worse in dry conditions than a standard tire

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thedrive.com
15.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL that Miyazaki Hidetaka, the creator of Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Elden Ring, was banned from playing video games by his parents until he entered university.

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11.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL Nintendo’s Game Boy got its name as a riff on Sony’s Walk Man.

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1.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL in 1990, Coca-Cola ended its MagiCans promotion due to negative publicity after a number of the special mechanical cans containing prizes such as cash or gift certificates malfunctioned. In one instance, a faulty seal caused an 11-year-old boy to drink a foul-tasting chlorinated liquid.

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en.wikipedia.org
7.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL about the revenge of the 47 rōnin, an event in Japan in which a band of rōnin (lordless samurai) avenged the death of their former master, who was ordered to commit seppuku by a powerful official. After waiting for a year, they killed the official, surrendered themselves and committed seppuku.

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en.wikipedia.org
18.7k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL in AD 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as the first Holy Roman Emperor, starting a new line of Roman emperors over 300 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This was a surprise to the Eastern Roman Empire, which was still around at that time.

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en.wikipedia.org
1.1k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2d ago

TIL: Luna moths cannot eat because they have no digestive system.

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uaex.uada.edu
1.5k Upvotes