r/todayilearned 10h ago Gold Burning Cash

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.

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en.wikipedia.org
30.8k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago All-Seeing Upvote

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.)

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nvlchawaii.org
10.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

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).

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en.wikipedia.org
4.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL A casino can just kick you out if you win to much even if you are not cheating or doing anything wrong.

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38.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 5h ago

Today I learned that genuine wasabi is rare and likely not even served in most high-end sushi restaurants. Apparently the real deal is difficult to grow as it’s quite picky and takes approx. three years to mature.

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mashed.com
743 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL that Mike Judge moved to Texas and a storm blew off a part of his fence. After his new neighbors fixed it for him, no questions asked, it became the basis for King Of The Hill - "about neighbors who... ultimately, do the right thing and do right by people and are basically good people."

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npr.org
397 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL: The 62 books in the mainline Goosebumps series were published in only 53 months. RL Stine published more than a book a month for almost five years.

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15.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL that the European Union suppressed a 300-page study that found piracy doesn’t harm sales

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gizmodo.com
617 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 6h ago

TIL That Elvis Presley's manager sold "I Hate Elvis" badges as a way to make money from people who weren't buying Elvis merchandise

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en.wikipedia.org
738 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL Disney World had its own airport that had a runway that featured a set of grooves, like rumble strips on the side of a highway, that played “When You Wish Upon a Star” when driven over at roughly 45 miles per hour to surprise the airplane passengers.

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977 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL The Aristocrats joke gained public attention when Gilbert Gottfried told it in an attempt to win back the audience after his 9/11 joke at the Friar’s Club was poorly received. For context, this happened 18 days after the attack.

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6.3k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 23h ago Gold

Teaching Assistant 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. NSFW

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93.2k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 14h ago

TIL: honeycombs start out circular, and the surface tension of the beeswax pulls them into hexagons as it solidifies, because it is the most energetically favorable conformation.

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ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
2.4k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL about the void that forms under certain trees when it snows, called tree wells. The upper branches of the tree prevents snow from falling below it, creating a pocket that is a serious peril for skiers & snow boarders. Several die every year from falling head first into these voids.

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en.wikipedia.org
918 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL A newborn baby is 75% water at birth. A slightly higher water content than bananas, but slightly less than potatoes.

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npr.org
5.0k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 10h ago

TIL baby giraffes fall 6 feet to the ground they are born. The fall doesn’t hurt them, but snaps the umbilical cord and tears the amniotic sack, with the shock of the fall stimulating the baby to take its first breath.

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monartosafari.com.au
764 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 19h ago

TIL that for 15 years some of Canada’s largest grocery chains, including Loblaws, conspired to keep bread prices artificially high. During that time bread prices rose 96% compared to overall food inflation of only 45%.

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3.9k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 6h ago

TIL the reason why the Declaration of Independence is so faded isn't solely its age. In the 1800s, it was placed in front of a large window in the US Patent Office for 35 years.

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en.wikipedia.org
309 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 18h ago

TIL that during the 17th century, coffeehouses were so popular in England that they were often referred to as "Penny Universities". For the price of a penny, one could buy a cup of coffee and engage in stimulating conversation on a wide range of topics, from politics to literature.

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2.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 4h ago

TIL that US military pilots were not allowed parachutes in World War I because it was believed they would be too quick to abandon their planes at the first sign of danger.

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thehistoryreader.com
169 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 1d ago

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

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en.wikipedia.org
19.5k Upvotes

r/todayilearned 12h ago

TIL In 2017, six Chinese officials were punished for falling asleep in a meeting about how to motivate lazy bureaucrats.

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reuters.com
370 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 2h ago

TIL that a group of four serial killers calling themselves the “Death Angels” were convicted of murdering at least 15 people and may have murdered over 70 people in the Bay Area in the mid 70s.

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wikipedia.org
62 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 8h ago

TIL that for six generations, from 1688 to 1840, members of the Sanson family were the executioners in Paris. Charles-Henri Sanson performed 2,918 executions, including that of Louis XVI, and his son Henri executed Marie-Antoinette.

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en.wikipedia.org
177 Upvotes

r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL among the official HTTP client error response codes (like "404: Not Found"), status code "418: I'm a teapot" is the code used to indicate that the server refuses to brew coffee because it is, permanently, a teapot.

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en.wikipedia.org
139 Upvotes