TIL the hottest place in the universe is on Earth. In a lab, scientists created plasma with temperatures of 5 trillion degrees Celsius, hotter than the center of the sun.
TIL beaver dams saved a wetland in the Czech Republic. The government was planning to do the same thing, but the bureaucracy took too long. The dams saved $1.2 million.
TIL in 1945 a B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building between the 78th & 80th floors, which killed 14 people and injured 26 others. Although on a normal workday, as many as 15,000 p...
TIL to help finance the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, producers secured funding from Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and Pink Floyd. The British comedy was first released 50 years ago this week,...
TIL in 1961, astronomer Frank Drake created the Drake Equation, a formula to estimate the number of communicative alien civilizations in our galaxy, sparking the modern search for extraterrestrial...
TIL about the Smooth-Hawley tariff act of 1930 which increased US tariffs (by an average of 20%) on over 20,000 imported goods, while it seemed succesful at first by 1933 US exports had declined b...
TIL that in 18th century England, people would pay to attend Bedlam, a private lunatic asylum, to watch the mentally ill as entertainment
TIL that on 10th February 1890 an estimated 180,000 mummified cats, weighing 19.5 tons, were shipped from Egypt to Liverpool, auctioned, and sold for fertilizer
TIL that Sam Houston is the only person to have served as the governor of 2 U.S. states, with him serving as the 6th governor of Tennessee from 1827-1829, and as the 7th governor of Texas from 185...
TIL Thailand declared war on the United States in 1942. However, the Thai ambassador to the United States refused to deliver the war declaration. As a result, the US simply ignored Thailand's decl...
TIL Italy is home to the “World Capital of Ugly People,” where an official club celebrates ugliness with festivals, rankings, and a satirical "No-Bel" Prize. And you can apply to be assessed for m...
TIL Part of N.Machiavelli's diplomatic mission to Cesare Borgia included sending intel back to his government, even down to Borgia's personal habits. He noticed that he had inhuman energy and coul...
Today I Learned that a rare Panamanian tree fern can turn its dead leaves into functioning roots. When the fronds die and touch the ground, they regrow into nutrient-absorbing roots, effectively r...
TIL that static shocks can involve tens of thousands of volts, and even several amps of current, but don’t hurt you because they last only millionths of a second.
TIL Harald a lowly Viking Chieftain proposed to his concubine Gyda, who declined, saying she’d only marry him if he ruled all of Norway. Harald vowed not to cut or comb his hair until he achieved ...
TIL in 1950 only 9 percent of American households had a television set, but by 1960 the figure had reached 90 percent.
TIL the hat worn by the Smurfs is called a Phrygian cap and is synonymous with liberty. Also known as a Thracian cap, it dates back over 2000 years.
TIL that the last burial in Tombstone's famous Boothill cemetery (resting place of the dead from the OK Corral) wasn’t until 1953, of a man whose ashes were sent from California COD.
