title
stringlengths 2
302
| label
stringlengths 3
20
|
|---|---|
"TIL that the largest Masonic Temple in the world, the Detroit Masonic Temple, was saved from foreclosure in 2013 by Jack White of the White Stripes. White paid off $142,000 owed in back taxes by the Temple due to the fact that it had given his mother a job as an usher when she was in need." | todayilearned |
"TIL About a 17 year old kid that was given an old iPhone for free, and using the "barter" section of Craigslist made 14 trades, ending with a Porsche. Along the way he traded for newer phones, computers, motorcycles, and eventually cars." | todayilearned |
"TIL: The residents of the Spanish village Villar de Corneja near Avila, where the average age is 75, toast the New Year 12 hours before the rest of their countrymen in a collective decision to get to bed at a decent hour." | todayilearned |
"TIL Burger King has the rights to use its name throughout the entire United States, with the exception of a 20-mile radius surrounding a totally unrelated restaurant, also called Burger King, in Mattoon, Illinois." | todayilearned |
"TIL Scientists discovered sharks that are living in an active underwater volcano. Divers cannot investigate because they would get burns from the acidity and heat." | todayilearned |
"TIL Susan Travers, the only woman ever to serve in the French Foreign Legion, waited until she was 91 to write her autobiography so everyone mentioned had already died" | todayilearned |
"TIL the food in Alcatraz Prison was so good that the guards and prison staff ate the same exact meals as the prisoners. This was because the warden believed most trouble in prison is caused by bad food." | todayilearned |
"TIL bats and dolphins evolved echolocation in the same way (down to the molécular level). An analysis revealed that 200 genes had independently changed in the same ways. This is an extreme example of convergent evolution." | todayilearned |
"TIL that over the 125 years of the New York Public Library's existence, the most checked-out books are: The Snowy Day, The Cat in the Hat, 1984, Where the Wild Things Are, To Kill a Mockingbird, Charlotte's Web, Fahrenheit 451, How to Win Friends..., Harry Potter 1, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar" | todayilearned |
"TIL Jeopardy! Contestants stand on adjustable platforms so that they all appear to be the same height on camera." | todayilearned |
"TIL Switzerland is the only country in the world which could fit 114% of its population into bunkers in case of an emergency" | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 2005 graffiti artist David Choe was offered $60K to paint multiple murals at Facebook headquarters. He chose to take his compensation in stock which was eventually worth more than $200 million" | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1958 a white girl kissed two African American boys aged 9 and 7 on the cheeks. The two boys were arrested, detained for 6 days without access to their parents or legal counsel, & were severely beaten by the police. The boys were detained for a total of 3 months." | todayilearned |
"TIL the great smog of London in 1952 was so bad that pedestrians couldn't even see their feet. Some of the 4,000 who died in the 5 days it lasted didn't suffer lung problems – they fell into the Thames and drowned because they could not see the river" | todayilearned |
"TIL that several months before Russell Crowe won the Oscar for Gladiator, the FBI warned him that the al-Qaeda were planning to kidnap him as part of a “cultural destabilization plot”. For nearly two years, the FBI guarded Crowe in public and refused to give him any details about the threat." | todayilearned |
"TIL Mexico was the only country to protest the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. To honor that support, there is a square in Vienna named "Mexikoplatz"." | todayilearned |
"TIL The Taliban used dynamite to destroy two 4th century statues of Buddha. They saw it as idolatry. The destruction revealed a previously unknown network of caves with wall paintings from the 5th to 9th centuries and another giant statue of Buddha." | todayilearned |
"TIL at age 11 Hugh Jackman decided against dance lessons because his older brother told him "dancing is for sissy's." Years later his brother apologized and encouraged him to follow his passion. Hugh signed up for lessons the following day and went on to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical." | todayilearned |
"TIL lack of personal hygiene and body smell is such an issue at Super Smash Bros tournaments that some tournaments now disqualify players not keeping up with hygiene and even resorted to passing out deodorant." | todayilearned |
"TIL Teddy Roosevelt regularly staged boxing matches in the White House, taking on anyone he could - including professional boxers. He only stopped boxing when his eyesight was permanently damaged by a punch from his military aide, Col. Daniel T. Moore." | todayilearned |
"TIL in test screenings, Willy Wonka had a scene with a hiker seeking a guru, asking him the meaning of life. The guru requests a Wonka Bar. Finding no golden ticket, he says, "Life is a disappointment." The director loved it, but few laughed. A psychologist told him that the message was too real." | todayilearned |
"TIL that a movement seeks to rename the Australian dollar to the "dollarydoo", based on a classic 'The Simpsons' episode. Doing so would increase demand for the currency and strengthen the Australian economy, organizers claim." | todayilearned |
"TIL a man in 2002 found a way to crack the lottery in the US state of Michigan using math and probability. He figured out that if he bought a certain amount of tickets that he would certainly make a profit. He and his wife Marge ended up making millions of dollars." | todayilearned |
"TIL That a German shepherd named Talero stayed next to the body of his owner for 23 days, after he had died in a snow storm. He prevented animals from attacking the body, and tried to keep his owner warm by sleeping by his side." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1965, Arnold Schwarzenegger went AWOL in the Austrian Army (during the 1 year service required by the government) to attend a bodybuilding contest. He spent a week in military prison, but won the contest, propelling the opportunity for larger contests and, ultimately, his ticket to to America" | todayilearned |
"TIL Charles Manson tried out Scientology and subsequently declared it as "too crazy"" | todayilearned |
"TIL The US had to abandon construction of a border fort in New York State after realising that they'd accidentally built it on the Canadian side of the border. It was promptly nicknamed "Fort Blunder"." | todayilearned |
"TIL an "eyebrow flash" is an unconscious gesture, wherein a person wishing to approach another whom they recognize and are preparing for social contact, raises their eyebrows for approx ⅕th of a second. People generally return an eyebrow flash, unless it was given by someone whom they do not know." | todayilearned |
"TIL hospitals throughout the NYC area were bracing for maximum capacity on 9/11, only to slowly realize there were very few survivors from the World Trade Center's collapse." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 1977 Bob Marley was diagnosed with melanoma under a toenail. He rejected his doctors' advice to have his toe amputated, citing his religious beliefs. The cancer subsequently spread and he died of metastatic melanoma 4 years later, at the age of 36." | todayilearned |
"TIL about Robert Landsberg, a photographer who upon realisation that he is going to die in the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980 lied down on top of his equipment to preserve the photographs he had taken of the event." | todayilearned |
"TIL Seth MacFarlane served as executive producer of the Neil deGrasse Tyson-hosted series Cosmos. He was instrumental in providing funding for the series, as well as securing studio support for it from other entertainment execs." | todayilearned |
"TIL that at least twice, CNN correspondent Sanjay Gupta has been on location reporting, but needed to step in as a neurosurgeon: once on a Marine in Iraq, the other on a little girl injured during the Haitian earthquake." | todayilearned |
"TIL that a man was cured of HIV in 2007 with a bone marrow transplant from someone with genes resistant to HIV. He's the first person to ever be cured." | todayilearned |
"TIL When Steve Jobs accused Microsoft of stealing idea for Windows from Mac, Bill Gates replied: "Well, Steve, .... I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."" | todayilearned |
"TIL The Soup Nazi from Seinfeld was based on Al Yeganeh, the real-life owner of Soup Kitchen International in Manhattan. After the episode aired, members of the cast and crew went to the restaurant for lunch. Yeganeh yelled at them and stated that the publicity had ruined his reputation." | todayilearned |
"TIL "Hit Me Baby One More Time" was written by a Swede who meant the chorus to mean "hit me up on the phone one more time" but mistranslated it" | todayilearned |
"TIL Modern body armor was created by a pizza delivery guy who was wounded in the head and leg after a pizza delivery turned into a shootout. Richard Davis, a former US Marine, developed the bulletproof vest using Kevlar. During testing, he shot himself in the chest 190 times." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Lady Gaga admited that Kiss FM was the only radio station to correctly censor the song during the chorus when she replaces "poker face" with "fuck her face". Although not in the official lyrics, the switch can be heard every second repetition of the phrase during the chorus." | todayilearned |
"TIL in the early 1920s, the KKK was very active in Chicago with 50,000 members in the city, the largest of any metropolitan area in the U.S. The group was driven from the city in 1925, when a Catholic organization, American Unity League, printed names, addresses, and occupations of Chicago Klansmen." | todayilearned |
"TIL the FBI mounted a 4-year-long undercover surveillance operation to nab Jared "The Subway Guy" Fogle, after he made some inappropriate comments about middle school girls to a female reporter" | todayilearned |
"TIL In 2017, scientists began a global search to find a mate for Jeremy, a rare left-coiled snail. Since his shell coiled in the opposite direction of most snails, his organs couldn't align with others. Two contenders were found, but they mated with each other instead of Jeremy." | todayilearned |
"TIL that during WW2, Canada gave out buttons to people who tried to enlist but were refused due to medical reasons to show their willingness to fight." | todayilearned |
"TIL that rapper J. Cole graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA, accepted a scholarship to St. Johns University, was the president of a pan-African student coalition in college, and graduated with a magna cum laude in communication and business." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Chuck E. Cheese’s official backstory is that he is an orphaned mouse who does not know his own birthday. To make up for never having a birthday party of his own, he hosts parties for children. And his middle name is Entertainment." | todayilearned |
"TIL infamous streaker, Mark Roberts, was sponsored by GoldenPalace.com to streak Super Bowl 38. He was paid $1 million, given front row tickets on the 50-yard line, and provided with one of the best defense attorneys in the US who was able to reduce his charges down to a misdemeanor and $1,000 fine." | todayilearned |
"TIL Liam Neeson was once a school teacher, but got fired because a student pulled a knife on him, and Neeson punched him" | todayilearned |
"TIL that a fearless goat-herding dog called Odin refused to abandon his flock of goats during deadly California wildfires in 2017, while his owners ran to safety. Days later his family returned to their destroyed home and found him AND the goats still alive." | todayilearned |
"TIL that when Wayne Rogers left M*A*S*H, the producers tried to sue him for breach of contract. They discovered that Rogers had never actually signed his contract, having objected to a morals clause, and that he had been a free agent the entire time." | todayilearned |
"TIL about Amy Rorbach, a reporter for ABC News, who underwent a mammogram live on air in 2013 to promote the procedure for Breast Cancer Awareness month. It was discovered that she did have cancer, and the procedure likely saved her life." | todayilearned |
"TIL President Harry S. Truman was so poor after his presidency that Congress had to enact a law to give him a pension. President Herbert Hoover the only other living ex-president took the pension as well, despite his wealth, to avoid embarrassing Truman." | todayilearned |
"TIL that NYE revelers in Times Square are often locked into place for up to twelve hours and cannot move, so many of them wear adult diapers and the kids just go on the street." | todayilearned |
"TIL about Smoky the Yorkie, a pet dog to soldiers in the south pacific, weighing 4lbs, who kept operational 40 United States fighters by running a wire tied to her collar through a 6in pipe, completing a 3 day construction job in minutes. Also had 10 recognized combat flights, 8 combat stars." | todayilearned |
"TIL when Beethoven was challenged to an improvisation duel by one of his rivals named Steibelt, Beethoven took a piece of Steibelt's music, turned it upside down, played it, then improvised on that theme for over an hour. Steibelt simply left halfway through." | todayilearned |
"TIL on the DVD release of Borat, there is a language option for Hebrew, but choosing it only results in a warning screen reading "You have been trapped, Jew!"" | todayilearned |
"TIL that a cow named Cincinnati Freedom evaded police officers for 11 days after jumping a six-foot fence to escape a slaughterhouse; after finally being caught, and she was given the "key to the city" by Cincinnati's mayor and allowed to live out her days in a NY sanctuary" | todayilearned |
"TIL Nearly 70% of icelanders has costco membership and there's only one costco in the country" | todayilearned |
"TIL sea urchins are called "sea urchins" because hedgehogs were called called "urchins" until about the 15th century. Therefore, sea urchins are ocean hedgehogs." | todayilearned |
"TIL death from laughter is a recorded cause of death throughout history. One such instance, an English man laughed for 25 consecutive minutes at a joke on the TV show The Goodies. His widow wrote a letter to the show creators thanking them for making his last moments of life so pleasant." | todayilearned |
"TIL Italian speakers with dyslexia tend to have less severe reading impairment than English or French speakers due to Italian's simpler and more phonetic spelling." | todayilearned |
"TIL when the "Red Baron" was shot down and killed in combat, his enemies buried him with full military honors and a wreath that said: "To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe"" | todayilearned |
"TIL that when Yoshitaro Shibasaki and his team completed their 1907 ascent of Mount Tsurugi — thought to be the final unclimbed mountain remaining in the Japanese archipelago — they found an ancient sword at the summit that was later determined to have been left there more than 1000 years earlier." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the Ancient Egyptians used 12 months of exactly 30 days, with 5 days of festivities at the end to add up to 365" | todayilearned |
"TIL David Bowie briefly considered becoming a Buddhist monk. After a few months' study at Tibet House in London, he was told by a Lama, "You don't want to be Buddhist. ... You should follow music."" | todayilearned |
"TIL that whilst Filming the Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland was shunned by the Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion due to jealousy. Her only friend on the set was Margaret Hamilton who played the Wicked Witch of the West" | todayilearned |
"TIL that the Breaking Bad team was offered $75 million to produce three additional episodes after the final season. This much money was stated to be more than the profits they had made in five years. The team refused, saying that the final episodes did not lend themselves to additional installments." | todayilearned |
"TIL Lincoln was famous for his self-deprecating sense of humor. When accused of being two-faced, Lincoln replied, “Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?”" | todayilearned |
"TIL that Steve Jobs named his company "Apple" partially because he wanted it to appear in the phone book before Atari, his former workplace." | todayilearned |
"TIL the former Bloods and Crips gang leaders made peace with each other and started an organization to promote peace in their communities. They’re now training former gang members and community leaders to help younger generations." | todayilearned |
"TIL Nic Cage once crashed a Nic Cage film festival, watched 4 of his own films, did a 47-minute Q&A and read a 10-minute short story" | todayilearned |
"TIL - Disney once sued three day care centers in Florida for unauthorized use of their characters (5 foot high likenesses on murals on the buildings) who had to remove them. Universal in turn let the centers use Scooby Doo, Flintstones & other of their Hanna-Barbera characters." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 2015 a Canadian man broke into a home,fed the cats and horses,cooked a meal,did the laundry,wrote in the homeowners diary and was apprehended sitting by a stoked fire while drinking a cup of tea." | todayilearned |
"TIL United airlines promised to help a blind woman off a plane once everyone had gotten off but they just left her there and the maintenance crew had to help her out." | todayilearned |
"TIL that the wife of George Lucas, Marcia Lucas, won an Oscar in 1977 for Best Film Editing in Star Wars. George Lucas has won zero Oscars." | todayilearned |
"TIL Ariana Grande tried to get Japanese tattoo that read "Seven Rings" but found out later it read "Small Charcoal Grill" and then attempted to correct it, only for it to still be wrong and then read "Japanese BBQ finger"" | todayilearned |
"TIL that a man who committed suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge had left a suicide note that read "I'm going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I won't jump."" | todayilearned |
"TIL of a French soldier who was taken as a POW and fed only potatoes during his captivity, and survived. Feeling like he should have died, he made it his life’s mission to convince the world of the nutritional value of potatoes, and his tomb in France is decorated with potatoes as a tribute." | todayilearned |
"TIL in August 1968 after being turned down by 19 other teams, the Atlanta Braves signed 62-year-old pitcher Satchel Paige so he could get his MLB pension. He needed only 158 days on an active roster to reach the five-year minimum required to receive his pension. He collected $250 a month." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in Return of the Jedi (1983) for the speeder chase, Garrett Brown walked through the forest shooting at less than one frame per second. By walking at about 5 mph and projecting the footage at 24 frame/s, the motion seen in the film appeared as if it were moving at around 120 mph" | todayilearned |
"TIL American rapper Jay-Z stabbed a man at an album release party, with a 5 inch blade in the stomach, after rumors the man was behind the bootlegging of one of his albums. He later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, accepting a 3 year probation sentence." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 2007, reigning Jeopardy! champion Scott Weiss purposely placed his final bet in such a way as to force the first three-way tie in the game's history. He said he knew he could have bet more and won the game, but thought it would be fun to force a tie instead." | todayilearned |
"TIL that Scandinavians are adamant about letting their children nap outside, even in cold weather. Parents report that babies take longer and deeper naps when they sleep comfortably bundled up outside." | todayilearned |
"TIL almost all shells open on the right-hand side, with the exception of a few snail species whose shells open on the left. If you find a shell that opens on the left (as long as it's from a normally right-hand species), you have a rare shell sometimes highly sought by collectors." | todayilearned |
"TIL Jimmy Carter still lives in the same $167,000 house he built in Georgia in 1961 and shops at Dollar General" | todayilearned |
"TIL that fake oil paintings can be detected because of nuclear bombs detonated in 1945 because of the fact that isotopes such as strontium-90 and cesium-137 that can be found in oil did not exist in nature previously. If a picture contains these isotopes, it is certainly painted after year 1945" | todayilearned |
"TIL Cats domesticated themselves. They existed unchanged until the Middle Ages; and even now are genetically extremely close to their ancestors." | todayilearned |
"TIL after a waitress at a pizzeria helped a customer choose the numbers for a winning lottery ticket in 1984, he 'tipped' her $3,000,000 - half of his $6,000,000 prize money." | todayilearned |
"TIL A Stolen teddy bear with dying mother's voice has been returned after actor Ryan Reynolds, celebrities offered a $15,000 reward" | todayilearned |
"TIL Chris Brown is currently banned from entereng the UK, Australia, and New Zealand due to his criminal history." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 1913, a bank was shipped in 50 pound increments through the USPS mail system to save money. 40 tons of bricks ended up being shipped and the USPS released a statement saying “it is not the intent of the United States Postal Service that buildings be shipped through the mail."" | todayilearned |
"TIL Wells Fargo was forced by the feds to rehire a whistleblower employee that reported fraud, and pay him $5.4 million in damages." | todayilearned |
"TIL that George Washington asked to be bled heavily after he developed a sore throat from weather exposure in 1799. After being drained of nearly 40% of his blood by his doctors over the course of twelve hours, he died of a throat infection." | todayilearned |
"TIL in several Chinese cities, there is a service called "jam-busting". Drivers in traffic jams who need to get somewhere urgently call for a couple of people to show up on a motorbike. One stays with your car, and the other puts you on the back of the bike, and blasts off through and around the jam" | todayilearned |
"TIL that you are guaranteed a lawyer if you cannot afford one (in the U.S.) because a poor man was convicted unjustly, began reading law in prison, and wrote the Supreme Court, saying that he should have been given a lawyer despite his lack of money. He was retried and acquitted." | todayilearned |
"TIL that during the sinking of the Titanic, a drunken baker helped load women and children into the lifeboats, refused a seat for himself, threw deck chairs overboard for passengers to use as flotation devices, and somehow survived hours swimming in the freezing water until he was rescued at dawn." | todayilearned |
"TIL there is a method of growing rhubarb known as "forcing" where the plant grows in complete darkness and is tended to in candlelight. It grows so quickly during this process that you can hear it grow." | todayilearned |
"TIL in 2007, "Big Bang Theory" set designers toured the apartments being used by current graduate students to see how young scientists really live. They did a faithful re-creation of the apartments, but after CBS tested the show, the sets were scrapped because they were too depressing." | todayilearned |
"TIL Jim Becker, a Packers fan hall-of-famer, routinely sold his blood to buy season tickets, which inadvertently saved his life when he was found to have Hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that leads to toxic iron deposition in the body, and an early death. The only treatment is bloodletting." | todayilearned |
"TIL when France was occupied by the Germans in 1940, Citroen was forced to produce vehicles for the Nazis. They chose to move the fill line on their oil dipsticks lower, causing the trucks to seize under stress from low oil." | todayilearned |
"TIL that in 1937, dancer Patricia Douglas was brutally assaulted at an MGM party. Instead of bartering her silence for a studio contract or cash, Douglas went public with her story and filed a landmark lawsuit. The studio covered up the crime and destroyed her life." | todayilearned |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.