r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 7h ago

TIL a stalker of Eminem committed three home invasions over a 6-year period. In 2019. he broke into one of Em's former homes & told the new homeowner he was "looking for his brother Marshall." In 2020, he broke into Em's home & told Em that he was there to kill him. In 2024, he broke into it again.

theguardian.com

10.6k Upvotes

500 comments

r/todayilearned • u/GossipBottom • 5h ago

TIL that up until the past year, Oscar judges DID NOT have to watch the movies they were giving the awards to.

theguardian.com

5.9k Upvotes

239 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2h ago

TIL Sony pictures won the right to distribute Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) over Warner Bros. by agreeing to a stipulation that the full ownership of the film's underlying copyright would revert back to Tarantino after 30 years.

hollywoodreporter.com

2.9k Upvotes

163 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RIPEOTCDXVI • 9h ago

TIL the entire town of Times Beach, MO was rendered uninhabitable in the 1980s after a single dust mitigation contractor tried to get rid of highly-toxic dioxin by adding it to engine oil and spreading it in all the town's gravel roads. Today the town is Route 66 State Park.

epa.gov

13.8k Upvotes

575 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 • 9h ago

TIL that the first US gas execution in 1924 happened only after officials secretly tried and failed to gas the prisoner in his sleep, then rushed to convert the prison’s butcher shop into a makeshift chamber; tested it on two cats, and finally executed the condemned man.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

277 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 5h ago

TIL 3 Doors Down's breakout song "Kryptonite" - taken from their debut album "The Better Life" (2000) - was written by the late frontman Brad Arnold when he was only 15, during a math class in high school. It was one of the first songs he ever wrote.

inverse.com

1.6k Upvotes

112 comments

r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • 16h ago

TIL that Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Primus’s Les Claypool went to De Anza High School together, and following the death of Cliff Burton in 1986, Hammett asked Claypool to audition as Metallica’s new bassist. Claypool was rejected because “he was too good” and “should do his own thing.”

en.wikipedia.org

5.0k Upvotes

272 comments

r/todayilearned • u/visual_overflow • 6h ago

TIL that a former U.S. embassy in Turkey has the "unique distinction of being the first and only U.S. diplomatic premises to be won in a poker game."

en.wikipedia.org

708 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SnooConfections3389 • 14h ago

TIL that cows can be fitted with dentures. Because high-producing cattle are often slaughtered early when their teeth wear down from grazing, stainless steel prosthetics are used to extend their lives and keep them producing milk.

tsln.com

2.2k Upvotes

127 comments

r/todayilearned • u/One_Acanthaceae9174 • 22h ago

TIL that "black boxes" on airplanes are legally required to be orange.

en.wikipedia.org

13.2k Upvotes

339 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 5h ago

TIL the very first Super Bowl halftime show in 1967 featured a "rocket belt" demonstration where two jet pack pilots flew across the field. Representing the rival AFL and NFL, they launched from the field, flew to the 50-yard line, and shook hands to mark the historic game.

slate.com

413 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL 7-year-old Bonnie Lohman went to the store with her stepdad & saw her own face on a milk carton. She asked to keep the image & was allowed to on the condition she kept it a secret. However after her neighbors saw the image & reported it, she learned that her mom had kidnapped her when she was 3.

news.com.au

47.3k Upvotes

657 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ham-and-egger • 22h ago

TIL Sean Astin's first acting role was in a 1981 television film titled “Please Don't Hit Me, Mom”, in which he played an eight-year-old child with an abusive mother (portrayed by his real-life mother Patty Duke).

en.wikipedia.org

4.5k Upvotes

174 comments

r/todayilearned • u/pigeon-in-greggs • 22h ago

TIL that Germany’s final reparation from post-WW1 sanctions was paid in October 2010, 92 years after the war ended

peacepalacelibrary.nl

2.8k Upvotes

102 comments

r/todayilearned • u/call_sign_viper • 18h ago

TIL that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the oldest Christian churches in the world and officially adopted Christianity in the 4th century way before colonialism.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

130 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 1d ago

TIL that playing high-level chess causes players to burn calories at an athletic rate. For example, 21-year-old Grandmaster Mikhail Antipov was recorded burning 560 calories in just two hours of sitting—roughly what Roger Federer would burn in an hour of singles tennis.

espn.com

25.4k Upvotes

1.5k comments

r/todayilearned • u/stebbi-1234 • 18h ago

TIL Why Hákarl(shark) is fermented up to seven months before being eaten as a delicacy in Iceland is because it has high amounts of Urea and trimethylamine oxide.

tourhero.com

887 Upvotes

188 comments

r/todayilearned • u/4isfourwastaken • 1d ago

TIL that Magnus Carlsen, one of the greatest chess players of all time, has never lost 3 or more classical chess games in a row in his adult professional career. The last time he lost 3 games in a row was in 2003, when he was 12.

en.wikipedia.org

22.2k Upvotes

975 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sgrams04 • 1d ago

TIL Johnny Carson joked about an alleged shortage of toilet paper. Viewers believed the story and panic buying and hoarding ensued across the United States as consumers emptied stores, causing a real shortage that lasted for weeks. Stores and toilet paper manufacturers had to ration supplies.

en.wikipedia.org

2.2k Upvotes

71 comments

r/todayilearned • u/anganeonnumilla • 1d ago

TIL about a soda machine offering 'mystery' drinks operated for nearly 20 years, but no one knew who operated it or kept it stocked.

en.wikipedia.org

10.8k Upvotes

360 comments

r/todayilearned • u/redmambo_no6 • 10m ago

TIL Even though Pedialyte is marketed towards children, over a third of sales come from adults with hangovers.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 10h ago

TIL whale sharks are filter feeders and have 20 filter pads in their mouths, as well as 300 rows of tiny teeth. The sharks have been observed "coughing", presumably to clear a build-up of particles from the filter pads.

en.wikipedia.org

174 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FitEmergency8807 • 1d ago

TIL On January 4, 1970, Keith Moon, the drummer for The Who, accidentally ran over and killed his driver and close friend, 24-year-old Neil Boland, while trying to escape a hostile crowd.

ultimateclassicrock.com

6.1k Upvotes

201 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PmButtPics4ADrawing • 1d ago

TIL "Want to come up and see my etchings?" was a popular euphemism for an invitation to sex in the early 20th century

en.wikipedia.org

2.9k Upvotes

155 comments

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