Today I Learned (TIL)

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/UndyingCorn on 2025-03-10 16:41:36.

Original Title: TIL In the middle ages it was customary to fly the opposing lords banner when surrendering, to signify a changing of allegiance. The many French victories during this period led to the Capetian dynasty’s white banner becoming associated with surrender in general as the white flag.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TheSpanishDerp on 2025-03-10 16:25:00.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/highaskite25 on 2025-03-10 15:57:30.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/TheEpicRedditerr on 2025-03-10 15:46:39.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Dull_View_5897 on 2025-03-10 15:04:51.

Original Title: TIL Steve Wozniak dislikes wealth and believes money can corrupt values. In 2017, he said he wanted to avoid it altogether. And unlike Steve Jobs, he gave $10 million in Apple stock to early employees when the company went public.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/BadenBaden1981 on 2025-03-10 15:00:26.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/AliveChart430 on 2025-03-10 14:57:59.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/ICanStopTheRain on 2025-03-10 14:26:01.

Original Title: TIL that PET scans work based on antimatter. The patient is injected with a radioactive material that generates positrons, which annihilate with electrons in the patient’s body. The PET scanner detects the gamma radiation that’s generated.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/borderbox on 2025-03-10 11:41:07.

Original Title: TIL The Tsavo Man-Eaters were a pair of large, man-eating lions in the Tsavo region of Kenya, responsible for the deaths of many construction workers in 1898. The lions' skins were used as floor rugs for 25 years, before being sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2025-03-10 11:26:14.

Original Title: TIL in 2022 a man won a free drink in an air-guitar competition while on a cruise, which is his last memory before waking up overboard in the Gulf of Mexico without the ship in sight. He treaded water for 18 hours & was stung by two swarms of jellyfish all over his legs & arms before being rescued.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/yooolka on 2025-03-10 08:54:50.

Original Title: TIL that while stranded in Jamaica and denied food by the locals, Columbus used his knowledge of an upcoming lunar eclipse to trick them. He said his god was angry and would turn the moon red as a sign of wrath. When the eclipse occurred, the they got terrified, begged for mercy and gave supplies.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2025-03-10 08:49:06.

Original Title: TIL from 2000-2018, 284 people went overboard or fell off cruise ships and a further 41 fell off large ferries. In addition, approximately two people go overboard in any given month and between 17%-25% of the people who go overboard are rescued.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Blenderhead36 on 2025-03-10 08:06:15.

Original Title: TIL of the Iftar Cannon, an Egyptian tradition of signaling the end of a day's fasting period during Ramadan by firing a single cannon shot at sundown. As a result, some homes and hotels use prop cannons as a type of Ramadan decoration.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/questioningtwunk on 2025-03-10 04:42:42.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/RippingLegos__ on 2025-03-10 03:39:49.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Pigpinsdirtybrother on 2025-03-10 00:13:39.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/sleepy_kitty001 on 2025-03-10 02:16:45.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/WavesAndSaves on 2025-03-10 01:45:47.

Original Title: TIL Eddie Adams, the man behind the famous Saigon Execution photo, regretted taking the photo later in life. He saw the executioner as a hero, as the prisoner allegedly killed six children and an elderly woman. He personally apologized to the executioner for the impact it had on him and his family.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/balrogath on 2025-03-10 00:38:17.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/timoleo on 2025-03-10 00:17:07.

Original Title: TIL about the Cobra effect, referring to a time in the British Raj when people were offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Soon, ppl started breeding cobras for a reward which in turn forced the government to stop the rewards. In response, people released their captive cobras into the wild.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/tyrion2024 on 2025-03-10 00:15:54.

Original Title: TIL in the mid-20th century, a researcher wore a pair of hand-engineered goggles that completely inverted his eyesight. Although he "stumbled wildly" at first, after 10 days he had grown so accustomed to his upside-down world that "paradoxically" everything began to appear rightside-up to him again.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/yooolka on 2025-03-09 22:33:52.

Original Title: TIL that when Stalin was dying, his doctor was unavailable because he was being tortured by the secret police. Paralyzed and unable to speak, Stalin lay untreated for 12 h while his terrified subordinates debated calling a doctor, fearing he might recover and punish them for acting without orders.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/yooolka on 2025-03-09 22:13:41.

Original Title: TIL that James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway were drinking buddies in 1920s Paris. Joyce, who was small, weak, and had poor eyesight, had a habit of picking fights and then hide behind Hemingway, shouting, “Deal with him, Hemingway! Deal with him!”

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/Werewolf_Nearby on 2025-03-09 22:11:33.

The original post: /r/todayilearned by /u/dumboflaps on 2025-03-09 21:29:26.