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TIL about the Forty Elephants or Forty Thieves, an all women crime syndicate in London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that specialized in shoplifting and pretending to be maids and robbing the wealthy families who hired them.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Professor_Hillbilly t3_124yp1v on March 28, 2023 at 7:02 PM in todayilearned

18 comments

549

TIL chocolate maker Lindt has sued companies that make gold-foiled chocolate bunnies for trademark infringement

reuters.com

Submitted by Specialist_Check t3_1264m83 on March 29, 2023 at 11:34 PM in todayilearned

23 comments

312

TIL In the West the largest meal of the day has historically been eaten at midday. It was not until Napoleon's empire there was the "abominable habit of dining as late as seven in the evening" as British travelers reported. The British adopted later dinners by 1850 from changes in work schedules.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by jamescookenotthatone t3_127hmlf on March 31, 2023 at 11:06 AM in todayilearned

51 comments

852

TIL hair smells bad when burned because keratin needs large amounts of the sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine for polymer crosslinking, which give it it's rigid properties

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Fantastic-Berry-737 t3_11xn6tn on March 21, 2023 at 5:06 PM in todayilearned

19 comments

399

TIL that after a flood killed thousands and devastated the economy, California legislators and State employees worked unpaid for a year and a half.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by WhatsAMisanthrope t3_1257ztr on March 29, 2023 at 12:42 AM in todayilearned

76 comments

1,445

TIL: In 1567, Hans Steininger, an Austrian politician known for his long flowing beard said to be seven feet long, died by tripping over his beard. After his death, the townspeople built him a statue and preserved his beard in glass. It is now in the District Museum Herzogsburg.

kingsmenpremium.com

Submitted by Flares117 t3_126a8t9 on March 30, 2023 at 3:37 AM in todayilearned

5 comments

106

TIL Drinking on St. Patrick's Day was largely frowned upon until the late 1970s. Restriction were lifted for Lent, but only for the Food part, not for the Drinking part.

lifehacker.com

Submitted by EQ2_Tay t3_11tusno on March 17, 2023 at 3:45 PM in todayilearned

9 comments

262

TIL that when former White House press secretary James Brady died in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide because it was ultimately caused by a gunshot wound he sustained in 1981, during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by IAmTiborius t3_126gwpf on March 30, 2023 at 8:45 AM in todayilearned

69 comments

2,411

TIL Like casinos, shopping malls are intentionally designed to disorient visitors. The feeling of losing track of time and geography inside a mall is called the Gruen Transfer.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Rifletree t3_11mvpn1 on March 9, 2023 at 3:54 PM in todayilearned

136 comments

1,664

TIL US & UK shoe sizes is based on the size of a Barleycorn!

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by VeryPoliteRaccoon t3_121mud8 on March 25, 2023 at 2:05 PM in todayilearned

35 comments

274

TIL that many species of spiders can fly through the air with a technique called ballooning

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by last_air_nomad t3_11sbnut on March 15, 2023 at 10:33 PM in todayilearned

24 comments

169

TIL the term "death row" comes from an assassination attempt on FDR. The shooter Giuseppe Zangara was sentenced to death, but there was already a convict awaiting execution, and FL law forbade them from sharing cells. A second cell was built, turning the "death cell" into the first "death row."

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by AdmiralAkbar1 t3_11xih6i on March 21, 2023 at 2:27 PM in todayilearned

24 comments

948

TIL that method used to rob the banks in the movie The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) was the actual method "Friday Night Robber" Carl Gugasian successfully used for over thirty years.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Saint_Gut-Free t3_1237w9b on March 27, 2023 at 2:11 AM in todayilearned

18 comments

299

TIL of BioSteel, high-strength fiber-based material produced by goats, genetically modified to produce spider silk.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Grothorious t3_1238d25 on March 27, 2023 at 2:28 AM in todayilearned

10 comments

114

TIL that the man who played the radiological technician in the movie The Exorcist is also a convicted murderer, and was briefly portrayed on screen in season 2 of Mindhunter.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by MrAnderson-expectyou t3_120xw5c on March 24, 2023 at 8:42 PM in todayilearned

11 comments

250

TIL: “EGOT” is an acronym that was coined by actor Philip Michael Thomas. It gained wider recognition after being introduced on the comedy series “30 Rock”

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by lily_noodlez t3_127j01e on March 31, 2023 at 12:03 PM in todayilearned

20 comments

TIL After the Aral Sea dried up significantly, Kazakhstan revived the northern part of the lake while the South Aral Sea in Uzbekistan is almost completely desiccated. Kazakhstan’s 12km-long dyke saved part of the northern sea by connecting it with the southern section

bbc.com

Submitted by Ok_Copy5217 t3_11pynzl on March 13, 2023 at 3:20 AM in todayilearned

16 comments

262

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.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by jcd1974 t3_12836fu on March 31, 2023 at 11:11 PM in todayilearned

4 comments

336

TIL the New York Times, in 1944, Introduced Readers to an Exciting New Food: Pizza

atlasobscura.com

Submitted by FatherWinter t3_1233mq4 on March 26, 2023 at 11:26 PM in todayilearned

123 comments

1,700

TIL: Thanks to poor internal communication at NASA, information about a spacesuit water leak wasn't properly communicated. Later, Astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowned on a July, 2013 ISS space walk, his helmet filling with several liters of water before they could get him back inside.

abcnews.go.com

Submitted by OvidPerl t3_121eza5 on March 25, 2023 at 8:01 AM in todayilearned

127 comments

3,543

TIL the milky way was named as such because of Hera's breaskmilk...An infant Hercules tried to nurse from her, and she threw him off. Allowing some milk to splash and creating the galaxy and all its stars...

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by Themakia t3_126ku10 on March 30, 2023 at 11:59 AM in todayilearned

100 comments

1,616

TIL Stop signs used to be BLACK ON YELLOW

familyhandyman.com

Submitted by sexyson91 t3_122t6pc on March 26, 2023 at 5:25 PM in todayilearned

14 comments

TIL an amateur archaeologist discovered European cave paintings used a proto-writing system meant to convey the gestation period of the various animals they painted by using dots to indicate the lunar cycle.

artnews.com

Submitted by AudibleNod t3_127nd09 on March 31, 2023 at 2:32 PM in todayilearned

8 comments

465

TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller.

en.wikipedia.org

Submitted by jamescookenotthatone t3_125kl1d on March 29, 2023 at 11:05 AM in todayilearned

71 comments

2,150

TIL that New Orleans chicory coffee mix started during the American Civil War when Union naval blockades cut off the port of New Orleans bringing coffee shipments to a halt. New Orleanians looking for their coffee fix began mixing chicory with coffee to stretch out the supply.

smithsonianmag.com

Submitted by GeoJono t3_127nnez on March 31, 2023 at 2:42 PM in todayilearned

52 comments

647