TIL the founder of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong, was responsible for the deaths of over 65 million people, making him the most prolific killer of the 20th century.(heritage.org)
TIL There is an inverse correlation between the amount of money spent on a wedding, and how long the marriage lasts. The more people spend on the ceremony, the more likely the couple will get divorced.(insider.com)
TIL that in English, swear words tend to have Germanic origins (fuck, shit, etc.) while euphemisms tend to have Latin origins (copulate, defecate, etc.)(grin.com)
TIL that all Native American dog breeds were wiped out by Eurasian dogs after the arrival of European settlers. Despite thriving on the continent for thousands of years, no pre-contact breeds survive today.(smithsonianmag.com)
TIL American chickens can be processed in China, shipped back, and legally sold in the U.S. as American products(thefactsource.com)
TIL about a murderer that couldn't be executed due to the innocence of his parasitic, conjoined twin(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL Cleopatra was ethnically Greek, not Egyptian. Her ancestor Ptolomy served in Alexander the Great's army. After Alexander's, death Ptolemy stole the body & used it to claim legitimacy as ruler of Egypt. His dynasty lasted 292 years until Augustus Cesar defeated Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that the small Pacific island nation of Nauru was once the richest country in the world thanks to phosphate mines, but as the phosphate was depleted it descended into poverty, reaching 90% unemployment.(telegraph.co.uk)
TIL That Humans have a limited ability to care about people outside their social circle, and this is why there will always be what some consider social injustice.(lundtan.lundaekonomerna.se)
TIL that there exist many villages in France that "died for France" in WWI. They were never rebuilt and the land not incorporated in other administrative divisions. Instead the villages officially remain with zero inhabitants to commemorate their sacrifice.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL of Brandolini's Law, aka the "Bullshit Asymmetry Principle" which states, "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it"(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL there are more payday loan stores in the US than there are Starbucks or McDonald’s.(research.stlouisfed.org)
TIL That, in addition to head-coverings, followers of Sikhism must always carry a Kirpan (ceremonial dagger) as a symbol of their "spirituality and the constant struggle of good and morality over the forces of evil and injustice."(sikhs.org)
TIL that, on average, Mercury is closer to Earth than our next door neighbors of Venus and Mars(physicstoday.scitation.org)
TIL about the Falkland Islands wolf. It was the only native land mammal living on the islands, and it is not quite clear how it was able to get there from the mainland, 480 km away. It was hunted to extinction by sheep farmers in the 19th century.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that there are three islands in lakes on islands in lakes on islands, all in Canada. There used to be four, until the Taal Volcano Main Crater Lake in the Philippines was emptied after an eruption on January 12, 2020.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL Iraq 1971 poison grain disaster has left 459 dead and 100,000 brain damaged. Farmers consumed grain treated with mercury fungicide, because they didn't understand English/Spanish warnings or skull/crossbones sign(thefactsource.com)
TIL that the last sword duel in France took place in 1967, between the mayor of Marseille and the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party.(rarehistoricalphotos.com)
TIL that the first rocket launched by the Indian space program in 1963 was transported to the launch site by bicycle. The space center from which the launch was performed was set up in a church.(indiatoday.in)
TIL about the dancing plague of 1518 in Strasbourg where hundreds started to dance maniacally without any known reason, some even dancing to their death.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that in 2010 the stock market experienced a flash crash, when over a trillion dollars were lost and mostly regained, all in 36 minutes. The crash was caused by automatic trading, although the exact causes are not definitely determined.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL since it is forbidden for Jews to carry certain objects in public during Shabbat, many cities have installed lines in the air, enclosing the city, making the entire city count as private domain and thus making it allowed to carry among other things, house keys, tissues, medication, and babies.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that the great mathematician and logician Kurt Gödel, famous for his incompleteness theorems, refused to eat anything not cooked by his wife out of fear of poisoning and died of starvation when she was hospitalized and unable to cook for him.(en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that we dont have just 5 senses, we have at least 14 of them.(science.howstuffworks.com)