r/todayilearned • u/Tometek • 23h ago

TIL that from 1544 to 1548, the conquistadors who conquered Peru fought a civil war against the Spanish Crown over laws restricting Indigenous labor. Led by Gonzalo Pizarro, they killed the Spanish viceroy, seized control of Peru, and some even proposed crowning Pizarro king of an independent Peru.

tandfonline.com

932 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CraftyFoxeYT • 1d ago

TIL the Latin alphabet used by the Romans is derived from the Etruscan alphabet, which is derived from the Greek colony in Italy Cumae's Western Greek alphabet, which is derived from the Phoenician alphabet, which is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs

en.wikipedia.org

2.5k Upvotes

214 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mandywiles • 1d ago

TIL that Methuselah, a Great Basin bristlecone pine located in California, is over 4,800 years old, making it older than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

usda.gov

1.9k Upvotes

36 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ok-Sherbert-6606 • 1d ago

TIL that many of Savannah, Georgia’s cobblestone streets are made from ship ballast stones, brought from ports across Europe and the American northeast and dumped along the riverfront

hmdb.org

2.3k Upvotes

61 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 23h ago

TIL that on October 2nd, 1942, the RMS Queen Mary accidentally collided with the HMS Curacoa, one of her escort ships, sinking it and leading to the deaths of 337 men. A later investigation placed the blame on the Curacoa's crew for the accident.

en.wikipedia.org

537 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/c00lture • 1d ago

TIL that in 1990, the creators of a comedy series formed the “Polish Beer-Lovers' Party” as a joke to promote beer drinking over vodka. It ended up winning 16 seats in Parliament during the 1991 elections.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Bright-Surround-747 • 23h ago

TIL that the first benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide (commonly used for severe alcohol withdrawal) was named Librium, short for equilibrium.

edu.rsc.org

377 Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sapphire-Crystal • 1d ago

TIL of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, a Gilded Age millionaire who died when the RMS Lusitania sank in 1915, after giving his own life vest to a young mother and her baby. He couldn't swim and he knew that there were no other lifeboats available at the time. He was 37. The woman & her child survived.

en.wikipedia.org

12.0k Upvotes

713 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Miner_Guyer • 1d ago

TIL that an American physicist predicted that horses will reach their top trotting speed in the year 2158, trotting 1 mile in 99 seconds.

en.wikipedia.org

11.9k Upvotes

507 comments

r/todayilearned • u/KindSecretary6383 • 1d ago

TIL whales produce milk as thick as toothpaste so that it doesn't disperse into the water like it would as a liquid

sciencenorway.no

16.7k Upvotes

582 comments

r/todayilearned • u/wandering_soles • 1d ago

Navy, not Air Force TIL about the USS Macon (ZRS-5), a flying 'aircraft carrier' built by the U.S. Air Force in the 1930's that carried 5 scout biplanes in internal hangars which were deployed and retrieved in-flight via a retractable hook system.

en.wikipedia.org

345 Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dinozaurs • 21h ago

TIL that in 1985 the English band The Fall released a song titled "I Am Damo Suzuki," in homage to the singer Damo Suzuki from the band Can. The bassist for The Fall said that years later he met Suzuki at a club, who approached him by saying, "I am Damo Suzuki."

en.wikipedia.org

225 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BisonThunderclap • 1d ago

TIL Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature. It has 49 senators who serve 4 year terms with half of the legislature being up for election every 2 years.

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

242 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 1d ago

TIL that the oldest-known sandals in the world were found in the 1930s dating back to 10,000 years old in Fort Rock in Oregon.

mnch.uoregon.edu

380 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MrMrSean • 1d ago

TIL Joseph Beyrle served in both the U.S and Soviet armies during WWII. Initially with the 101st Airborne, he was captured by the Germans after jumping into Normandy on D-Day. He escaped from an Eastern Front POW camp and joined the Red Army. His son later served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

53 comments

r/todayilearned • u/fan_tas_tic • 1d ago

TIL Matmata, Tunisia's underground "troglodyte" structures stay 64–77°F (18–25°C) year-round without AC or heating, even when summer exceeds 104°F (40°C). Thick earth insulates against desert heat and cold nights.

atlasobscura.com

804 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 1d ago

TIL although the Dutch monarchy favors male heirs, King William III’s three sons all died before him. His daughter Wilhelmina inherited the throne in 1890, beginning 123 years of rule by three successive queens, each succeeded by a daughter, until Willem-Alexander became king in 2013.

en.wikipedia.org

4.9k Upvotes

144 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fairytlly • 2d ago

TIL that the "zombie-ant" fungus (Ophiocordyceps) does not control ants by invading their brains. Instead, it leaves the brain completely intact while directly encircling and seizing control of their muscle fibers like a biological puppet.

psu.edu

20.4k Upvotes

601 comments

r/todayilearned • u/brondynasty • 1d ago

TIL about the ancient Roman practice of Damnatio Memoriae (condemnation of memory) whereby an unpopular or disgraced public figure from history is systematically erased as if they had never lived.

en.wikipedia.org

4.0k Upvotes

247 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mahrogamers • 1d ago

TIL that Claude Shannon, whose work helped lay the foundations of the digital age, built a calculator named THROBAC (THrifty ROman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer) that did all of its arithmetic entirely in Roman numerals, both externally and internally

mitmuseum.mit.edu

663 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FGGF • 1d ago

TIL that imitation crab in California rolls is often made from pollock, which is caught using trawl nets that catch and kill actual crabs, the very animal imitation crab is meant to mimic.

nationalfisherman.com

4.3k Upvotes

150 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RiverMesa • 1d ago

TIL Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, used to be called Lourenço Marques until independence in 1976, and was originally going to be renamed Can Phumo, after a chief who lived in the area before the Portuguese arrived

en.wikipedia.org

268 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mission_Angle_2322 • 7m ago

TIL Big Ben was probably named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a Welsh politician whose nickname may have been a joke about his height. Big Ben is actually the bell inside the Elizabeth Tower, not the tower itself

parliament.uk

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 2d ago

TIL On average, a kidney transplant from a living donor lasts about 15 to 20 years, and a kidney from a deceased donor lasts 8 to 12 years.

kidney.org

14.8k Upvotes

479 comments

r/todayilearned • u/conlanyoo • 1d ago

TIL that historian Shekhar Pathak led a decadal foot expedition called the "Askot-Arakot Abhiyan," walking over 1,150 kilometers across the length of the Himalayas every ten years (starting in 1974) to document the environmental and social changes in rural mountain villages.

downtoearth.org.in

185 Upvotes

2 comments

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