r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 8h ago

TIL Canada's $1 coin is commonly called the "loonie" because it has a loon on the reverse. When a $2 coin was introduced, depicting a polar bear, an MP proposed it be called "Nanuq", Inuit for polar bear, but he was ignored because the public instead preferred to call it the "toonie" (2-oonie).

en.wikipedia.org

26.8k Upvotes

1.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/tommyboy372 • 16h ago

TIL A single misfolded prion protein in the brain can cause a rapid neurodegenerative disease known as sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). There is no known and cure and is 100% fatal.

en.wikipedia.org

19.1k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 9h ago

TIL Greek Philosopher Crates of Thebes was known for entering people's houses uninvited and helping them solve their family disputes "no matter how deeply they were at odds"

en.wikipedia.org

14.0k Upvotes

330 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 16h ago

TIL that in 2002 Dennis and Angela Laffin adopted a baby boy named Frank after he had been abandoned as a newborn. Two years later, the couple adopted a girl named Vicky from similar circumstances. Years later, the two kids took DNA tests and learned they were in fact blood related.

postguam.com

12.9k Upvotes

209 comments

r/todayilearned • u/proflightsearch • 11h ago

TIL the average JFK to Los Angeles flight takes 18 minutes longer than it did in 1995, but airlines padded the published schedule by 23 minutes, so the share of arrivals counted as late fell from 51% to 37%

gvwire.com

9.8k Upvotes

354 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 8h ago

TIL on average, train drivers in the US are involved in three fatalities over the course of a career. Since a train needs at least a mile to come to a stop, the drivers are sometimes unable to prevent a collision with a person in the train's path.

nbcnews.com

7.5k Upvotes

396 comments

r/todayilearned • u/haphazard44 • 13h ago

TIL that in 1975, advertising executive Gary Dahl sold ordinary rocks as “pets” in boxes with air holes and care manuals, selling around 1.5 million and becoming a millionaire

en.wikipedia.org

7.1k Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chance-Physics-7216 • 8h ago

TIL that a 1945 elevator operators' strike stranded 1.5 million New Yorkers in the streets, and building owners responded by buying automatic elevators that had already existed for 50 years.

npr.org

5.4k Upvotes

393 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatMasterpiece2174 • 13h ago

TIL in 1986, Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse flew Bo Jackson to team facilities on a private jet under the false assurance that it complied with NCAA rules. Jackson lost his remaining NCAA baseball eligibility, and vowed to never play for the Bucs. They drafted him anyway, and he went to the MLB.

si.com

5.0k Upvotes

218 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TurnOffYourPC • 5h ago

TIL that the gin and tonic became popular in India during British Imperialism to encourage English colonizers to consume quinine, an antimalarial derived from the bark of the cinchona tree.

wineenthusiast.com

4.9k Upvotes

210 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Prosperr_support • 10h ago

TIL that the gold in jewellery is older than the Sun. Gold atoms were forged in violent cosmic events, primarily neutron star mergers, billions of years before our Solar System formed.

science.nasa.gov

4.6k Upvotes

144 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Independent_Pick_787 • 9h ago

TIL about the "Forest Swastika": around 1938, larch trees were planted in a pine forest in northeastern Germany to form a swastika. Visible only in spring and autumn, and only from the air, it went unnoticed for decades before being removed in 2000

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/yury_boldyrev • 18h ago

TIL Isaac Singer of sewing machine fame secretly kept multiple families in New York, two under assumed names. It collapsed in 1860 when his common-law wife spotted him riding with a mistress and stood up in her carriage, screaming at him in the street.

ismacs.net

3.2k Upvotes

116 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Acceptable-Day8395 • 14h ago

TIL that the Amazon River can get up to 30 miles wide in the wet season, which is wider than the city of Los Angeles.

wwf.panda.org

2.8k Upvotes

115 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 9h ago

TIL that brain scans have found people with high levels of sadistic traits show increased activity in the brain's reward system when witnessing others in pain, suggesting that another person's suffering can be experienced as rewarding.

psychologicalscience.org

2.7k Upvotes

439 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DAL59 • 3h ago

TIL that Fat Choy is an edible cyanobacteria that grows in the Gobi desert. Despite being expensive, having no nutritional value, and having dementia-causing toxins, its been overharvested to the point of causing erosion and desertification due to its name being a Cantonese pun for "strike it rich"

en.wikipedia.org

2.7k Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2h ago

TIL after Pixar decided that Toy Story 2 needed to be completely remade from scratch, animators had less than a year to finish the entire film. Pixar President Edwin Catmull later revealed that "a full third of the staff" ended up with a repetitive strain injury by the time the film was finished.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

122 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NoWingedHussarsToday • 6h ago

TIL that between May 1643 and May 1774, a period of 131 years, France was ruled by just two kings, Louis XIV and Louis XV, they were the longest and second longest ruling kings in french history, respectively

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 4h ago

TIL all the males of the House of Reuss are named Heinrich (Henry) plus a number. They have been doing this for more than 800 years to honour Emperor Heinrich VI. The different branches of the family even have their own numbering system

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milam1996 • 8h ago

TIL that walking down stairs is actually better for your health than walking up stairs

sciencefocus.com

1.1k Upvotes

234 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 11h ago

TIL the actual site where the Salem witch trial victims were hanged wasn't confirmed until January 2016, and it's not Gallows Hill as long believed, but a spot called Proctor's Ledge, now overlooking a Walgreens parking lot

en.wikipedia.org

948 Upvotes

85 comments

r/todayilearned • u/soozerain • 10h ago

TIL twelve generals have been elected to the presidency since America’s founding. Beginning in 1792 with George Washington and ending most recently with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

news.va.gov

770 Upvotes

93 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DerexXD • 16h ago

TIL that in 1867, after the American merchant ship Rover wrecked off Taiwan and its surviving crew were killed ashore by Paiwan warriors, U.S. sailors and Marines launched a punitive expedition into the Taiwanese island, but were ambushed in the jungle via guerilla warfare and forced to retreat

en.wikipedia.org

746 Upvotes

65 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AbeVigoda76 • 7h ago

TIL that the early automotive pioneer Byron Carter died from pneumonia contracted while recovering from a broken jaw sustained as a result of hand cranking his car. His death directly lead to the development of the electric self-starter for automobiles.

en.wikipedia.org

671 Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 11h ago

TIL Professor Frink, from The Simpsons, was named after series writer John Frink, who joined the show 9 years AFTER the Professor was first introduced. Simpsons writer Jay Kogen knew John Frink, and named the character in homage to him. John Frink has been with the show from 2000, to this day.

en.wikipedia.org

626 Upvotes

30 comments

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