Today I Learned (TIL)

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Vegetable-Orange-965 on 2025-07-08 16:38:53+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that a former member of the band Thompson Twins designed a billboard featuring a young woman with four breasts hooked up to a milking machine. Although controversial, the billboard won several international art awards. It was intended to criticize the idea of splicing human genes into cows.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/VegemiteSucks on 2025-07-08 16:22:39+00:00.

Original Title: TIL: in 1819, Anton Diabelli asked all the important composers of the Austrian Empire to write a variation on his waltz. While most composers wrote only 1 variation, Beethoven alone composed 33, creating his "Diabelli Variations," now regarded as one of the greatest works for the piano ever written

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/stopitsgingertime on 2025-07-08 15:30:54+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the Denver International Airport is guarded by a 32-foot-tall sculpture of a demonic horse. In 2006 it had killed its sculptor when he was in the middle of making it when a 9,000-pound section fell on him, but eventually was completed by his sons in 2013.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/aresef on 2025-07-08 15:12:42+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 on 2025-07-08 14:53:18+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in 1694, the Parliament of England banned smoking in the House of Commons chamber and committee rooms. To replace smoking, MPs were offered snuff from a special Parliamentary Snuff Box. This is still stocked today. The current box is made from timber salvaged after the WWII bombing.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2025-07-08 13:42:11+00:00.

Original Title: TIL after 8 long-expired medications were discovered in a retail pharmacy in their original, unopened containers, an anaylsis found that 12 of the 14 active ingredients in the medications had retained full potency for at least 28 years, with 8 of those 12 retaining full potency for at least 40 years

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/AdhesivenessLevel321 on 2025-07-08 13:05:53+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that after Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945, President Harry Truman asked former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt what he could do for her. She replied, "Is there anything we can do for you? Because you're the one who's in trouble now."

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/MAClaymore on 2025-07-08 11:53:08+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Overall-Register9758 on 2025-07-08 09:47:41+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that all Senators and senior members of the House, are assigned a one-room hideaway as private office. These rooms are not listed in any directory and doors are marked only by a room number. In 1945, Harry Truman learned of FDR's death while having cocktails in Sam Rayburn's hideaway.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Mrk2d on 2025-07-08 08:58:51+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Robin Lee Graham sailed alone around the world at the age of 16. His 5-year journey started in California, battling storms and loneliness with his cat aboard. He finished his journey in 1970, met his wife in South Africa, wrote a book called Dove, and settled in Montana.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/tjdans7236 on 2025-07-08 07:48:47+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TypicallyThomas on 2025-07-08 06:19:28+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/freudian_nipps on 2025-07-08 05:57:58+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/gullydon on 2025-07-08 05:19:18+00:00.

Original Title: TIL before becoming the first Xiongnu emperor, to be sure of his men's loyalty, Modu Chanyu commanded them first to shoot his favourite horse and one of his favourite wives. Any who refused were summarily executed. He became emperor by ordering his men to murder his father with arrows while hunting.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/acrowsmurder on 2025-07-08 02:52:11+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/tinycole2971 on 2025-07-08 02:17:59+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/aprettyp on 2025-07-08 01:58:39+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Little-Cucumber-8907 on 2025-07-07 22:19:24+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the most effective pollinators of common ivy are yellow jackets. Yellow jackets scored the highest on the ‘Pollination potential PP index’ (a measure of pollinator effectiveness) out of all the insects examined (which included bees and flies).

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/DeScepter on 2025-07-08 00:44:47+00:00.

Original Title: TIL in 1967, Singapore experienced a mass panic over shrinking genitals; hundreds of men ran to hospitals convinced their penises were retracting into their bodies due to “genital retraction syndrome”

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Sarke1 on 2025-07-08 00:29:29+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Scarfaceswap on 2025-07-07 23:43:21+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about Terry Wallis, who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state following a 1984 car accident, suddenly spoke “Mom” on June 11, 2003, making him the longest documented coma‑like recovery with regained consciousness

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Festina_lente123 on 2025-07-07 23:37:08+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/radioactivetampon21 on 2025-07-07 22:07:26+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/waitingforthesun92 on 2025-07-07 22:07:12+00:00.

Original Title: TIL when the Barilla pasta company introduced a spring-form pasta in the 1970s, it was named “cellentani” in honour of Italian singer Adriano Celentano, whose nickname is “the springy one.” As Barilla trademarked the name, other companies called the shape “cavatappi”

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/IanGecko on 2025-07-07 21:33:10+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the difference between Putt-Putt and mini golf: Putt-Putt courses have basic, minimalist designs with a strict par 2 on each hole. Mini golf courses are more tricky and elaborate, so the holes have pars up to 6.