Today I Learned (TIL)

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You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

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TIL that Aaron Sorkin refitted a speech written for and rejected by former CA Gov. Gray Davis to address the events of September 11th. It went on to be one of the most iconic moments in the West Wing (www.creativescreenwriting.com)
submitted 28 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/AShellfishLover on 2024-12-27 15:25:47.
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TIL a space wedding occurred in 2003, with the groom on the ISS and the bride at NASA in Houston. The private ceremony was conducted by video, with the bride standing beside a life-size cutout of ... (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 28 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Cranialscrewtop on 2024-12-27 15:24:28.

Original Title: TIL a space wedding occurred in 2003, with the groom on the ISS and the bride at NASA in Houston. The private ceremony was conducted by video, with the bride standing beside a life-size cutout of the groom. The bride marched in to David Bowie's "Absolute Beginners."

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TIL the principality of Monaco used to be much bigger but in 1848 its two largest cities (Menton and Roquebrune) seceded from Monaco as they wished to join Italy during the first war of Italian in... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 28 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/PeopleHaterThe12th on 2024-12-27 15:13:11.

Original Title: TIL the principality of Monaco used to be much bigger but in 1848 its two largest cities (Menton and Roquebrune) seceded from Monaco as they wished to join Italy during the first war of Italian independence during the Risorgimento

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TIL of the New Guinea Singing Dog, a breed of dog native to the mountains of Papua that don't bark. Instead, they make "yodeling" noises. It is also the closest relative to the Australian Dingo. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/zahrul3 on 2024-12-27 14:00:22.
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TIL,world's oldest emergency call service was started after a neighbour who wanted to report a house fire in Wimpole street telephoned the fire brigade and was so outraged at being held in a queue... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Deepakhn on 2024-12-27 11:16:12.

Original Title: TIL,world's oldest emergency call service was started after a neighbour who wanted to report a house fire in Wimpole street telephoned the fire brigade and was so outraged at being held in a queue by the telephone exchange that he wrote a letter to the editor of The Times,which prompted an enquiry.

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TIL ~31% of Pakistani people aged 20-79 have diabetes (www.visualcapitalist.com)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Double-decker_trams on 2024-12-27 10:54:20.
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TIL 11.6% of Americans have diabetes (2021 statistics). It's estimated that in 2020, almost every third American 65 or older had either diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes. (usafacts.org)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Double-decker_trams on 2024-12-27 10:51:15.
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TIL of paper towns and trap streets, a technique where mapmakers and publishers of encyclopedias and dictionaries hide fake data within real information in order to determine if someone has plagia... (www.ipeg.com)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Anesthesia_STAT on 2024-12-27 10:42:01.

Original Title: TIL of paper towns and trap streets, a technique where mapmakers and publishers of encyclopedias and dictionaries hide fake data within real information in order to determine if someone has plagiarized their work

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TIL that horses and sheeps with horizontal pupils can rotate their eyeballs so as to keep their horizontal pupils parallel to the ground, which helps them identify predators (www.npr.org)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/arjun_raf on 2024-12-27 09:30:43.
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TIL Aristotle hypothesized that nature contains no vacuums because the denser surrounding material continuum would immediately fill the rarity of an incipient void. The hypothesis was termed horro... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 29 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/electroctopus on 2024-12-27 08:48:44.

Original Title: TIL Aristotle hypothesized that nature contains no vacuums because the denser surrounding material continuum would immediately fill the rarity of an incipient void. The hypothesis was termed horror vacui (Latin: horror of the vacuum) or plenism— commonly stated as "nature abhors a vacuum".

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TIL Andrew Carnegie, then the richest man in the world, donated over $56 million to fund the construction of over 4,000 libraries, to further democracy (www.carnegie.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Salem1690s on 2024-12-27 07:53:26.
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TIL a pilot bet the first officer he could land his plane with the curtains closed, relying just on the instruments. Seventy people on-board died in the resulting crash, but the pilot survived. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/gnarlsbukowski2 on 2024-12-27 06:24:42.
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TIL there is no evidence that Victorian doctors gave women orgasms to cure hysteria or that they invented the vibrator to help with this task (journalofpositivesexuality.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/werefox88 on 2024-12-27 06:15:45.
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TIL that the first fax machine was invented several decades before Bell's telephone was patented. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Swiggy1957 on 2024-12-27 04:53:53.
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TIL about George Warren, who discovered a successful copper mine in Arizona, but lost his claim after he drunkenly bet that he could outrun a horse. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/honourablefraud on 2024-12-27 04:05:02.
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TIL about "Cocaine Bear," a real black bear that accidentally consumed a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. The drugs were dropped from a plane by a drug smuggler, Andrew Thornton, who later died... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Economy-Inevitable69 on 2024-12-27 03:53:34.

Original Title: TIL about "Cocaine Bear," a real black bear that accidentally consumed a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. The drugs were dropped from a plane by a drug smuggler, Andrew Thornton, who later died during a botched parachute jump. The bear ingested over 75 pounds of cocaine and died almost instantly

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TIL that the Richter Window is the stained glass window in the south transept of the Cologne Cathedral. It's made of 11.263 glass squares -each 9.6×9.6cm/3.78×3.78in- in 72 different colors and co... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/strangedot13 on 2024-12-27 03:43:22.

Original Title: TIL that the Richter Window is the stained glass window in the south transept of the Cologne Cathedral. It's made of 11.263 glass squares -each 9.6×9.6cm/3.78×3.78in- in 72 different colors and covers a surface of 106m²/1141ft².

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TIL that American company Rocky Mount Instruments produced one of the first digital synthesizers, the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, in 1974, predating the better-known Yamaha DX7 by almost a decade (www.synthmuseum.com)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/NewEnglandSynthOrch on 2024-12-27 03:05:49.
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TIL about Binturongs, AKA Bearcats. They smell like popcorn, and have ankles that can rotate 180°. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/trubbuh on 2024-12-27 02:54:51.
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TIL the construction of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany was finished in 1880 after 632 years of work (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/letseatnudels on 2024-12-27 02:29:44.
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TIL that "Lucifer" originally referred to a personified aspect of the planet Venus, and only acquired its current religious connotation when the Hebrew Book of Isaiah equated the king of Babylon w... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/addemup9001 on 2024-12-27 01:45:16.

Original Title: TIL that "Lucifer" originally referred to a personified aspect of the planet Venus, and only acquired its current religious connotation when the Hebrew Book of Isaiah equated the king of Babylon with said Venusian aspect

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TIL that the Canadian city of Lloydminster is a shared city on the border between two provinces, having a single local government despite residents paying taxes to different provincial governments (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/WpgMBNews on 2024-12-27 01:11:22.
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TIL Leslie Nielsen carried a fart machine everywhere including restaurants, on talk shows as a guest, press interviews, and even on movie sets his entire movie career. It predates his first comedi... (www.mentalfloss.com)
submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/f_GOD on 2024-12-27 01:04:47.

Original Title: TIL Leslie Nielsen carried a fart machine everywhere including restaurants, on talk shows as a guest, press interviews, and even on movie sets his entire movie career. It predates his first comedic role in Airplane.

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TIL Henry V, while still prince, was hit by an arrow near his left nostril during the Battle of Shrewsbury. The arrow shaft broke leaving the arrow point buried six inches deep in his head. Court ... (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/cycle_dadfast on 2024-12-27 00:04:15.

Original Title: TIL Henry V, while still prince, was hit by an arrow near his left nostril during the Battle of Shrewsbury. The arrow shaft broke leaving the arrow point buried six inches deep in his head. Court surgeon John Bradmore devised a special tool to extract the arrow point and saved the prince's life.

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TIL in 1999, Martin Lawrence almost died from heat exhaustion while jogging in the Big Momma costume. He went into a 3 day coma while having a body temperature of 107 °F (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/DMD612 on 2024-12-27 00:02:29.
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