Today I Learned (TIL)

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You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

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2101
5
TIL Einstein’s famous tongue-out photo was taken on his 72nd birthday, after a long day of smiling for photographers, when he was tired of posing, so he stuck out his tongue instead. (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Mrk2d on 2025-07-12 16:08:07+00:00.

2102
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TIL between 1999 and 2015, 736 UK Post Office workers were wrongly convicted for stealing money due to faulty accounting software. Workers were forced to pay back nonexistent losses with their own... (www.bbc.co.uk)
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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/LookAtThatBacon on 2025-07-12 15:39:50+00:00.

Original Title: TIL between 1999 and 2015, 736 UK Post Office workers were wrongly convicted for stealing money due to faulty accounting software. Workers were forced to pay back nonexistent losses with their own money and some were even sent to jail for a crime they did not commit.

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TIL about "John Rainwater", a fake graduate math student in the 1950s created as a prank due to an extra student registration form. The name later became a pseudonym for publishers in functional a... (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/CalabiYauFan on 2025-07-12 15:39:09+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about "John Rainwater", a fake graduate math student in the 1950s created as a prank due to an extra student registration form. The name later became a pseudonym for publishers in functional analysis, even having their own result called "Rainwater's theorem"

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TIL the only Indian POW held in Colditz Castle during WWII, Birendra Nath Mazumdar, was shunned by his fellow inmates. To improve his odds of escaping, he staged a hunger strike to get transferred... (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2025-07-12 14:51:23+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the only Indian POW held in Colditz Castle during WWII, Birendra Nath Mazumdar, was shunned by his fellow inmates. To improve his odds of escaping, he staged a hunger strike to get transferred to an all-Indian camp. It worked & he escaped from the new camp & walked 900km to Switzerland & freedom

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TIL Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an extremely popular newspaper column 6 days-a-week for 25 years which was part diary, part moral support for the disadvantaged, and part attacks on complacent Democrats. (www2.gwu.edu)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/topnotch312 on 2025-07-12 14:39:47+00:00.

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TIL a man with Alzheimer's forgot he was married — and then fell in love with his wife all over again. He proposed again, and they had a second wedding... (www.theguardian.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/WebEven620 on 2025-07-12 14:30:59+00:00.

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TIL that the final payment on German debts in regards to World War One reparations was made on October 3rd, 2010. (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TheSanityInspector on 2025-07-12 13:43:20+00:00.

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TIL about banker's rounding, where a half-integer is rounded to the closest even integer. For example, 0.5 is rounded to 0, and 1.5 is rounded to 2. This is intended to remove the bias towards the... (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/HauntingBox3638 on 2025-07-12 13:22:24+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about banker's rounding, where a half-integer is rounded to the closest even integer. For example, 0.5 is rounded to 0, and 1.5 is rounded to 2. This is intended to remove the bias towards the larger number that comes with rounding 0.5 up during approximate calculations.

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TIL there are over 8,330 different vehicle license plate choices in the US, with Maryland leading the most options at 989 plates. (www.beautifulpublicdata.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/CoffeeChangesThings on 2025-07-12 13:11:54+00:00.

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TIL in 1994 Jim Carrey became first actor to headline three number one movies at the box office in the same year with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber (ew.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/BDWG4EVA on 2025-07-12 13:04:34+00:00.

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TIL the largest sporting disaster in history was in Ancient Rome, where 50,000 people died after an amphitheatre collapsed in 27 CE (www.guinnessworldrecords.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/AnonymousTimewaster on 2025-07-12 09:50:19+00:00.

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TIL Ben Affleck’s habit of ad-libbing annoyed Kevin Smith so much during Chasing Amy that Smith told him to write his own script. Affleck ending up co-writing Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon and... (movieweb.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/SignalHD18 on 2025-07-12 08:02:29+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Ben Affleck’s habit of ad-libbing annoyed Kevin Smith so much during Chasing Amy that Smith told him to write his own script. Affleck ending up co-writing Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon and won an Oscar.

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TIL that Saddam Hussein had a Blood Quran written with 27 liters of his own blood (www.atlasobscura.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/LatePirate8880 on 2025-07-12 06:42:37+00:00.

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TIL the first Hollywood film to feature a majority Asian cast was Flower Drum Song (1961). The second film to do so was The Joy Luck Club (1993). The third film to do so was Crazy Rich Asians (2018). (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/OccamsDragon on 2025-07-12 06:33:43+00:00.

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TIL that Bryan Cranston's father, Joseph Cranston, abandoned the family during Bryan's youth after being unable to get enough acting jobs to support them. They would not meet for another 11 years.... (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ThatBadgerMan on 2025-07-12 05:53:41+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Bryan Cranston's father, Joseph Cranston, abandoned the family during Bryan's youth after being unable to get enough acting jobs to support them. They would not meet for another 11 years. In 1988, Bryan would star in 'The Big Turnaround' which was directed by his very own father Joseph

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TIL that Mangos have a very caustic sap when you pick them. It contains urushiol, terpinolene and resin acids. These can cause severe burning to your skin and could send you to the ER. Urushiol is... (www.industry.mangoes.net.au)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/XenEntity on 2025-07-12 05:38:36+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that Mangos have a very caustic sap when you pick them. It contains urushiol, terpinolene and resin acids. These can cause severe burning to your skin and could send you to the ER. Urushiol is also found in Poison Ivy and Cashews.

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TIL England and Ireland had sumptuary laws preventing lower classes from eating, drinking and dressing like the typical elite class, after the economic boost to peasants post the black death plague. (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/cuntdoc on 2025-07-12 05:10:35+00:00.

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TIL Sudden rodent die off can signal an incoming plague. Patient in AZ died today from bubonic plague. HHS in AZ are concerned about sudden prairie dogs deaths. (www.coconino.az.gov)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/GoinThruTheBigD on 2025-07-12 04:06:10+00:00.

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TIL that in his letter of 1637 to the Procurators of San Marco, Monteverdi complains that the bass Aldegati, in front of a congregation shouted, “The Director of Music comes from a brood of cut-th... (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Plus-Staff on 2025-07-12 02:03:08+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in his letter of 1637 to the Procurators of San Marco, Monteverdi complains that the bass Aldegati, in front of a congregation shouted, “The Director of Music comes from a brood of cut-throat bastards, a thieving, fucking, he-goat… and I shit on him and whoever protects him.”

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TIL of The Tale of Genji, one of the world's first novels, which was written by a Japanese noblewoman in the early 11th century (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/bros402 on 2025-07-12 03:27:08+00:00.

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TIL that the world's oldest known prosthetic device is a 3,000-year-old wooden toe found on an Egyptian mummy. The "Cairo Toe" shows signs of wear, indicating it was actually used by its owner dur... (www.cnn.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/CalmRipper on 2025-07-12 02:55:08+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the world's oldest known prosthetic device is a 3,000-year-old wooden toe found on an Egyptian mummy. The "Cairo Toe" shows signs of wear, indicating it was actually used by its owner during their lifetime, not just attached for burial purposes

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TIL Muhammad Ali's daughter, Laila, is considered one of the greatest female professional boxers of all time. (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/thesmartass1 on 2025-07-12 00:12:25+00:00.

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TIL about ‘The 9 Nanas,’ a group of women who secretly met at 4am for 30 years to anonymously help people in need, sending care packages with pound cake and notes saying ‘Somebody loves you.’ (www.dailygood.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Afraid-Objective3049 on 2025-07-11 22:58:24+00:00.

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TIL Hermann Göring was a member of the flying circus, a fighting ace squadron in WW1. Göring had 22 confirmed aerial victories and was recognized as one of the most successful enemy pilots in WW1 (en.wikipedia.org)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Due-Cryptographer913 on 2025-07-11 20:43:41+00:00.

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TIL that the world's largest Jack-in-the-Box has a 600 pound clown head once owned by Captain Kangaroo (www.damnedct.com)
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Front_Requirement598 on 2025-07-11 21:24:53+00:00.

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