Because we’re now covering a lot more daily topics here on Today I Found Out, and because I had a bunch of my Daily Knowledge Newsletter subscribers request something like this via email (the newsletter is free, by the way and you can subscribe here ;-)), I thought I’d start doing a “Weekly Wrap” which will more or less be highlighting the best of the week’s content on Today I Found Out, as well as highlighting some older popular articles most probably haven’t seen.

If you have any feedback on the format of this or really anything to do with Today I Found Out, please do email me about it here.  I personally read every single email that comes in, and take feedback very seriously.

So without further ado, here’s the new Today I Found Out Weekly Wrap Volume 1:

The Fascinating Origin of the Term “Deadline”

We all have deadlines. And when we hear about other people’s deadlines it’s understood that they refer to a time limit of some kind. But where does the phrase come from and what was its original meaning? The first references to a “dead line” had nothing to do with time, but rather was an actual line that if you crossed, you’d be killed. During the American Civil War (with the first reference in 1864)… (more)

The First TV Dinner

The evolution of the product began in 1941 when Maxson Food Systems Inc. produced the first ready to eat frozen meal. These dinners were called “Strato-Plates,” which were complete meals to be reheated and served to both civilian and military airline passengers. They consisted of meat, a potato and a vegetable, served on a plastic plate with three dividers. Unfortunately, because… (more)

Until Around 1950, 7 Up Contained Psychiatric Medication and was Touted as a Health Drink

The lemon-lime flavored soda, 7-UP was created by Charles Grigg of the Howdy Corporation in 1929 and first launched two weeks before the stock market crash that spurred the Great Depression… Timing! It was originally named “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda”,… (more)

The Bizarre Story of the Girl Who Without a Vagina Who Got Stabbed in the Stomach and Had a Baby

This has got “urban legend” written all over it and we were all prepared to place this one in our “Myths and Misconceptions” category and to try to find the source of the legend.  That is, until upon researching it, I found the source of the “legend” is a paper published in the very reputable British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in 1988, titled: Oral conception. Impregnation via the proximal gastrointestinal tract in a patient with an aplastic distal vagina. Case report.… (more)

The First Legal Slave in What Would Become the United States was Owned by a Black Man

The future slave owner was Anthony Johnson.  Johnson first came over to America as an indentured servant, arriving in 1620 in the Colony of Virginia.  He did not come over willingly, as many did, agreeing to become indentured servants for a certain number of years in exchange for passage to the New World. Rather, Johnson was captured in Angola by neighboring tribesmen and eventually sold to a merchant who transported him to Virginia, where he was then sold to a tobacco farmer…. (more)

Bonus Quick Facts:

• While often used as the poster woman for “how things were different back in the day” with models and actresses, Marilyn Monroe’s body dimensions according to her tailor were 35 inch bust, 22 inch waist, and 25 inch hips and 5 ft. 5.5 in. tall.  According to BluFire Model Registry, the average model today is 34/24/34 and 5 ft. 8 in. tall.
• In the last century, the east coast of the United States has moved about 8 ft. further away from Europe.
• The largest island on a lake which is itself on an island in a lake is Treasure Island in Lake Mindemoya, which is on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.
• Oranges are a berry, as are bananas.  Strawberries however are not technically berries, they are aggregate fruits.
• The fear of having no cell phone signal or otherwise being unable to make or receive cell phone calls is called Nomophobia.
• How do we know vampires don’t exist?  If each vampire ate just 1 meal a day, starting with just 1 vampire and each victim then turning into a vampire, it would take about 1 month for the entire human population to become vampires.
• The Sun is 20 “years” old- it’s completed 20 orbits around our galaxy’s center since it first sparked to life.
• Wikipedia to date has taken about 100 million man-hours to create.  This may sound like a lot, but in fact in a typical month, people in the U.S. alone spend about 1.5 billion man hours watching advertisements on TV.
• The world’s best-selling sci-fi novel to date, Dune, was rejected 20 times before being accepted… by a car manual publisher (Chiltons).
• One of the common early uses of Heroin, which was marketed as non-addictive, was to help treat people who were addicted to morphine, even though Heroin ultimately proved to be more addictive.  When morphine was first isolated from opium in 1805, one of its early uses was a “non-addictive” drug to treat people who were addicted to the less addictive opium.
• For many, many more fascinating and extremely thoroughly researched Quick Facts click here

If you liked the above articles, you might also enjoy:

• Where the Words “Geek” and “Nerd” Come From
• Why You Generally Shouldn’t Put Metals in the Microwave
• The Word “Dinner” Used to Mean Breakfast
• Why Coke Tried to Switch to “New Coke”
• Why Mentos and Diet Coke React