Today I Learned (TIL)

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/AshenTao on 2025-02-20 06:33:13.

Original Title: TIL that Adrian Carton de Wiart fought in 6 wars, including WW1 & WW2. He survived two plane crashes and being shot several times. He also tunnelled out of a POW camp, tore off his own fingers when amputation was declined, and described his WW1 experience with "Frankly, I had enjoyed the war."

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/JinnBhoot on 2025-02-20 05:58:03.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/res30stupid on 2025-02-20 04:04:23.

Original Title: TIL Ludwig von Beethoven's associates used notebooks to hold conversations with the composer after he became functionally deaf, to the point where historians can roughly piece together whole conversations the composer had based on what was written.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/madcatzplayer5 on 2025-02-20 03:06:32.

Original Title: TIL that the most popular YouTube video is Baby Shark with 15.6B views, resulting in the video receiving an estimated $37M+ in ad revenue. Thus making Baby Shark more successful than films such as Disaster Movie (2008) and Superman IV (1987).

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/blossom_p0ssum on 2025-02-20 01:31:53.

Original Title: TIL that in 1948 a 'charismatic' British ex-ski champion & yodeller stole 3000+ butterflies from Australian museums, just cos. His excuse for the Butterfly Heist was 'distraction of mind' due to his recent divorce. The whole saga was a mess for science, even decades later.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TriviaDuchess on 2025-02-20 01:21:43.

Original Title: TIL after a brutal Union defeat at the Civil War Battle of Olustee in 1864, a train carrying wounded soldiers broke down during the retreat. With no working locomotive, exhausted troops and a few horses had to pull the train 13 miles over 2 days to escape a Confederate pursuit.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/yutsi_beans on 2025-02-20 00:32:04.

Original Title: TIL optical telegraphs (at the turn of the 19th century) had many features now commonplace in modern networks, including control characters, routing, error control, flow control, message priority, and symbol rate control.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Tall_Ant9568 on 2025-02-19 22:00:05.

Original Title: TIL that of Disney’s top films of all time (Frozen, Little Mermaid, Tangled, etc.), almost all of them are adaptations of Hans Christian Anderson or Brothers Grimm. Disney has archives of unpublished Anderson inspired projects in storage they are prepared to pull from to create future films

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TriviaDuchess on 2025-02-19 21:48:58.

Original Title: TIL that so many ships were abandoned by prospectors during the 1849 Gold Rush in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Cove that it was called a "forest of masts." Some ships became bars, hotels, and brothels—where much of the gold was spent. Today, the ships lie beneath 50-story buildings.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Hosanna20 on 2025-02-19 21:10:25.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Edge-master on 2025-02-19 20:50:34.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/anticman on 2025-02-19 17:44:24.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Noahop5000 on 2025-02-19 17:27:46.

Original Title: TIL that U.S. President Polk made a deal with exiled Mexican general Santa Anna to lift the American blockade of Mexico so he could return and hand over territory. To the dismay of the Americans, Santa Anna immediately reneged on the deal and took up arms in the Mexican-American War.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/UndyingCorn on 2025-02-19 16:01:34.

Original Title: TIL In 1863 Copperhead leader Clement Vallandigham was exiled across enemy lines to the Confederacy by order of Abraham Lincoln, who considered him a “wily agitator” but did not want him to become a martyr.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Inner_Response1424 on 2025-02-19 15:52:04.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/haddock420 on 2025-02-19 13:35:14.

Original Title: TIL The British children's show Zzzap was designed with deaf children in mind, with the show being mostly visual, with sound only used for music and effects. The audience in "The Handymen" segments would also often sign clapping instead of actually clapping.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/BigMoney69x on 2025-02-19 14:10:34.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/CobblestonesSkylines on 2025-02-19 12:57:31.

Original Title: TIL Jean Lafitte was a pirate who smuggled slaves into Louisiana. In 1814, he rejected a British offer and instead aided General Andrew Jackson in defending New Orleans. His privateers played a key role in the American victory, earning Lafitte and his men a full pardon from President James Madison.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/nuttybudd on 2025-02-19 11:26:09.

Original Title: TIL songs by 009 Sound System, such as "Dreamscape", were widely used in early YouTube videos because YouTube's AudioSwap system, which replaced copyrighted music in videos with CC-licensed music, sorted songs alphabetically by artist, placing songs by 009 Sound System at the top.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/UndyingCorn on 2025-02-19 11:23:29.

Original Title: TIL Abraham Lincoln was offered by the Taylor administration to appoint him secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory as a consolation for not getting another post in the Land Grant Office. Lincoln declined in favor of returning to Illinois.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/jacknunn on 2025-02-19 09:55:45.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/HansEliSebastianFors on 2025-02-19 09:05:24.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/GolemOfPrague33 on 2025-02-19 07:32:10.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/FullOGreenPeaness on 2025-02-19 05:26:52.

Original Title: TIL that prolonged exposure to bird droppings or feathers can cause Bird Fancier’s Lung, an inflammatory condition marked by shortness of breath, fever, dry cough, chest pain, anorexia and weight loss, fatigue, and progressive pulmonary fibrosis.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/So_spoke_the_wizard on 2025-02-19 03:52:45.