Today I Learned (TIL)

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/New-Gap2023 on 2025-08-05 21:51:36+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TheGreatJaceyGee on 2025-08-05 21:38:48+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Moosplauze on 2025-08-05 20:44:03+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/MrMojoFomo on 2025-08-05 20:22:00+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the deadliest fireworks accident in the United States was the Station nightclub fire. In 2003, The Station nightclub (RI) was hosting a Great White concert when pyrotechnics ignited acoustic foam. The resulting fire saw 100 fatalities and 230 injuries

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-05 20:20:36+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving was founded in New York in 1912 to oppose pointless Christmas gifts and the custom of employees giving expensive presents to bosses. It reached 6,000 members, with Theodore Roosevelt as its first male member, before fading during WWI.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/XTP666 on 2025-08-05 19:54:50+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Double-decker_trams on 2025-08-05 19:19:40+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/smrad8 on 2025-08-05 19:16:51+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the most collected person or group on Discogs, a renowned comprehensive music database, is not a performing artist but mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, who has 13 Grammys and nearly 8,000 credits, including work with acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Elton John, Metallica and Daft Punk.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Double-decker_trams on 2025-08-05 18:40:10+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/KING-of-WSB on 2025-08-05 17:56:15+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/SweetPoison2704 on 2025-08-05 17:40:39+00:00.

Original Title: TIL: Hanna-Barbera gave characters like Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble necklaces not just for style—but to save money. The necklaces created a visual break between the head and body, allowing animators to reuse static body frames while only redrawing the head.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/GreasyPeter on 2025-08-05 15:48:20+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/w8sting_time on 2025-08-05 15:06:46+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/AudibleNod on 2025-08-05 13:25:51+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the United States operated a nuclear reactor in Antarctica to reduce the need for fossil fuels. It operated for less than 10 years and its large crew, clean up costs and unreliability led to its early decommissioning.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Morella1989 on 2025-08-05 12:41:17+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) was a Mexican nun, writer, philosopher, composer, and poet nicknamed “The Tenth Muse” and “The Mexican Phoenix.” She corresponded with Isaac Newton, studied science, and is considered one of the most important female writers in Mexican literature.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/thearchivalvenerable on 2025-08-05 06:15:30+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about Henry Wickham, the English "bio-pirate" who broke Brazil's global rubber monopoly in 1876 by smuggling 70,000 seeds to London. He lied to customs, and the resulting Asian plantations crashed the Brazilian economy.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/SPXQuantAlgo on 2025-08-05 13:29:23+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/sickeningly-cringe on 2025-08-05 11:55:34+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Grigori Perelman was offered the Fields Medal in 2006 and the Millennium Prize of 1 million dollars in 2010 for his contribution in solving the Poincaré Conjecture, an open problem in mathematics for a century. He rejected both of them.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Neat-Shelter-8612 on 2025-08-05 10:46:14+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Ill_Definition8074 on 2025-08-05 10:02:09+00:00.

Original Title: TIL In 1338, Scottish countess Agnes of Dunbar led the successful defense of Dunbar Castle during a 5-month siege by a much larger English army. At one point, they threatened to kill her captured brother if she didn't surrender. She replied that his death would only benefit her as she was his heir.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Eierjupp on 2025-08-05 08:01:03+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/beerbellybegone on 2025-08-05 06:31:09+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/zahrul3 on 2025-08-05 03:26:16+00:00.

Original Title: TIL: Someone at the National Health Service in England sent a test email to 840000 colleagues and another replied all, resulting in one of the largest reply all storms. 168 million emails were sent between people and caused the health system to be down for half a day.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/OutrageousTerm7140 on 2025-08-05 02:27:55+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Joseph Guillotin, the namesake for the infamous guillotine, actually opposed capital punishment entirely but felt he wouldn't garner enough support to do away with it entirely. He advocated for the guillotine because it was more humane than many alternative execution methods.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/South_Gas626 on 2025-08-05 01:41:36+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Pierce Brosnan was not allowed to wear a tuxedo in other films while he was under contract for the James Bond franchise. This is partially why he shows up to a black-and-white ball with an unbuttoned dress shirt and untied bow in The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).