/f/todayilearned

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TIL that Hawaii was a sovereign self-governing kingdom all the way up until 1893, totally unassociated with the U.S., until a coup d'état that year by 13 businessmen and 162 U.S. troops, with the openly stated goal of annexing the islands. (They succeeded.)

nvlchawaii.org

Submitted by DramaGuy23 t3_1281rqj on March 31, 2023 at 10:23 PM

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TIL Elvis Presley craved the Fool's Gold Loaf, which consists of a hollowed-out loaf of French bread filled with one 1-lb. jar each of creamy peanut and grape jelly and a pound of fried bacon. It packs ~8,000 calories. He and friends once flew from Memphis to Denver to eat 30 of them.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by grandmamimma t3_128068w on March 31, 2023 at 9:30 PM

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TIL the longest recorded sniper kill was in June 2017, by an unnamed Canadian sniper with a 3,540 m (3,871 yd) shot in the Iraqi Civil War, surpassing a 2009 record by over 1,000 m (1,100 yd).

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by SuperMcG t3_127wkgq on March 31, 2023 at 7:36 PM

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TIL: an Italian former porn star, Carlo Masi, quit porn to do research in applied mathematics, got his PhD, taught real analysis, became a professor, and then got sacked for being a former porn star. He sued and won against the university.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by fromnighttilldawn t3_127f8f7 on March 31, 2023 at 8:54 AM

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TIL Shel Silverstein wrote extensively for Playboy, frequented the Playboy mansion and slept with "hundreds, perhaps thousands of women".

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by incockneato t3_1277umk on March 31, 2023 at 2:56 AM

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TIL - The miscarriage rate is higher than people perceive. On average 12.5% of women who know the are pregnant have a miscarriage within the first 23 weeks of pregnancy.

nhs.uk

Submitted by iambeno t3_126unqa on March 30, 2023 at 6:06 PM

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TIL Thomas Jefferson was so impressed by macaroni and cheese during a visit to Paris that he wrote down the recipe and instructions on pasta extrusion, imported a pasta maker, macaroni, Parmesan, and made it at his home. He served it at a state dinner in 1802.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by NegativeBee t3_126twy6 on March 30, 2023 at 5:39 PM

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TIL Willie Nelson smoked weed at the White House with Jimmy Carter’s son

vice.com

Submitted by ComfortableTrash5372 t3_126qpoz on March 30, 2023 at 3:42 PM

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TIL William Bligh was not only overthrown as Governor of New South Wales in Australia’s only military coup but was previously overthrown as Captain in the famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by autumn-knight t3_126iu93 on March 30, 2023 at 10:37 AM

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TIL in 1996, a 21-year-old man burst into a New Zealand radio station, took the manager hostage and demanded that Kermit the Frog's rendition of Rainbow Connection be played.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by tom275bo t3_126ilsy on March 30, 2023 at 10:24 AM

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TIL In 2012, a solar Coronal Mass Ejection that might have taken the world 4 to 10 years to recover from missed Earth by about 9 days

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by SuperCrappyFuntime t3_1266kjk on March 30, 2023 at 12:56 AM

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TIL about the Davy Crockett - a tripod mounted gun developed by the US during the Cold War. It fired a tactical nuclear warhead with a range of up to 4 miles and a yield that caused fatal radiation within a radius of a quarter of mile

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by dakp15 t3_1266199 on March 30, 2023 at 12:33 AM

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TIL about Def Jam Rapstar, a 2010 rap karaoke game that caused its developers to be sued for 8 million dollars because it did not get the rights to the songs in the game.

eurogamer.net

Submitted by temporarysecretary17 t3_1260ymp on March 29, 2023 at 9:15 PM

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TIL about Blackout Cake, sometimes called Brooklyn Blackout Cake, which is a chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding and topped with chocolate cake crumbs. It was invented during WWII by a Brooklyn bakery, Ebinger's, in recognition of the mandatory blackouts to protect the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by jdward01 t3_125odoh on March 29, 2023 at 1:38 PM

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TIL there’s a Bavarian themed town in the Blue Mountains of Georgia

helenga.org

Submitted by AstridFugelstad t3_125hil9 on March 29, 2023 at 8:35 AM

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TIL that it takes only 15 mins. of exposure to noise in a nightclub, without protection, to damage hearing

amysarow.com

Submitted by mlois10 t3_125a5bp on March 29, 2023 at 2:14 AM

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TIL that the fast food chain Popeyes isn't named after the cartoon character, but Gene Hackman's character from The French Connection.

foxnews.com

Submitted by mhks t3_1256cv6 on March 28, 2023 at 11:35 PM

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TIL that barnacles were a major problem to old ships and that the 18th-century British Navy gained a great advantage by covering their ships' hulls with copper to stop the barnacles from growing.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Additional_Painting t3_125630u on March 28, 2023 at 11:24 PM

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TIL there's a full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, USA

artsy.net

Submitted by 500owls t3_1255b5s on March 28, 2023 at 10:54 PM

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TIL Benzodiazepines were originally marketed in the 1960s for the relief of anxiety, stress and insomnia and became very popular with women of the time. The gendered cultural meanings of Valium, a well-known benzodiazepine, was cemented in the 1966 Rolling Stones’ song “Mother’s Little Helper”.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Submitted by foodude84 t3_1251i4w on March 28, 2023 at 8:38 PM

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TIL that of the two 1988 films starring Tom Cruise, one of them (Rain Man) won the Oscar for Best Picture, while the other (Cocktail) won the Razzie for Worst Picture. Cruise remains the only actor to achieve both distinctions in the same year.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by HeyThereCharlie t3_124zgm5 on March 28, 2023 at 7:29 PM

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TIL that Marry Mallon ('Typhoid Mary') lived in forced quarantine for the last twenty years of her life in an Island just off of New York ('North Brother Island')

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by AdmiralHempfender t3_124xzil on March 28, 2023 at 6:37 PM

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TIL that the US, Canada, and Cuba have the lowest burden of food borne illness on the planet.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Submitted by hastur777 t3_124vnqa on March 28, 2023 at 5:15 PM

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TIL Earth is the only known place in our solar system where fire occurs, and no known exoplanets have enough oxygen to allow fire to exist.

astronomy.com

Submitted by clayt6 t3_124rggw on March 28, 2023 at 3:00 PM

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TIL Simeon Stylites lived on top of columns for 37 years. Simeon did this as a form of asceticism because when he lived in a cave people kept making pilgrimages to him and asking him religious questions. Ultimately his column life drew in even bigger crowds who would climb ladders to talk to him.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by jamescookenotthatone t3_124kuqk on March 28, 2023 at 10:55 AM

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