On this day in history, October 15th… 1783: The Montgolfier brothers make the world’s first hot air balloon ascent with a human inside the basket attached to the balloon. The first human aboard was Étienne Montgolfier (when testing before the public demonstration), then the second human, Pilâtre de Rozier, ascended 80 ft. at the public demonstration. About a month later, on […]
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Today I Found Out has teamed up with Jeremiah Warren to show his awesome “trivia” related videos here, along with Bonus Facts included after the video by me. I hope you enjoy his videos as much as I have. Today I found out how hurricanes are named: Bonus Hurricane Facts: Hurricanes typically die down very quickly after striking land because […]
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Myth: drinking alcohol warms your body and can be used to prevent hypothermia. In fact, drinking alcohol helps lower the core temperature of your body. This myth likely got its start thanks to the fact that drinking alcoholic beverages will make you feel warmer as your blood/alcohol level rises. As the Director of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Iowa, […]
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I’m doing a little website maintenance this weekend, moving Today I Found Out to a more powerful server as the traffic to the site has grown beyond my old dedicated server’s capacity to serve without increased page load times, especially when there are large random surges of traffic *stares accusingly at reddit*. Even when not getting big surges, though, the […]
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Today I found out Steve Jobs’ first business was selling “blue boxes” that allowed users to get free phone service illegally. These boxes were designed in 1972 by Jobs’ close friend and future co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. The idea to sell them was supposedly Jobs’. The two learned about blue boxes from famed “phreaker” (phone freak/hacker) John “Cap’n Crunch” […]
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Ron asks: Why did people think the Moon was made out of green cheese? Because it was formed in the Milky Way… *crickets* In fact, nobody really ever thought the Moon was made of green cheese… Well, there are nutters out there, so it’s possible that there was at least one person who thought the Moon was made of cheese, […]
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The first Today I found out email subscription contest ended October 1st. (If you haven’t already, you can subscribe here to be a part of future contests and get free interesting articles every morning in your inbox.) I’m still waiting to hear back from the two runner up winners ($50 VISA gift card going to both, so check your email […]
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Scott T. asks: Why are carved pumpkins called “Jack O’ Lanterns”? The name “Jack O’ Lantern” was originally one of the numerous names given to ignis fatuus (Medieval Latin for “foolish fire”), another of which is “Will O’ the Wisps”, basically the odd light that can occasionally be seen over marshes, swamps, and the like. (See: What Causes Will O’ […]
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Myth: Mice love cheese and it makes a great bait for mouse traps. In fact, as any pest exterminator or pet shop owner knows, mice don’t really like cheese at all and they’ll even actively shy away from certain types of cheese (they have a very sensitive sense of smell and certain cheeses give off odors that are repulsive to […]
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Today I found out about a 16 year old sentenced to death who had to have that sentence carried out twice. The teenager was Willie Francis, the youngest of 13 children in a poor black family living in Louisiana. Francis supposedly murdered 53 year old pharmacist Andrew Thomas in St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1944. Thomas was found shot five times […]
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Today I Found Out has teamed up with Jeremiah Warren to show his awesome “trivia” related videos here, along with Bonus Facts included after the video by me. I hope you enjoy his videos as much as I have. Today I found out the History of Thomas Edison: Bonus Thomas Edison Facts: While Google’s company slogan is unofficially “Don’t Be […]
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Today I Found Out has teamed up with Jeremiah Warren to start showing his awesome “trivia” videos here, along with Bonus Facts included after the video by me. I hope you enjoy his videos as much as I have. Bonus Trivia Facts: “Trivium” in Latin, the plural of which is “trivia”, literally means “triple way”: “tri-” (triple) and “via” (way). […]
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As announced about two weeks ago when I posted the email subscription contest, I’m switching up the way email subscriptions are handled and today should be the last time the old email subscription system is used. If any of you that have subscribed suddenly stop getting your email subscription, please let me know and I’ll re-subscribe you, or you can […]
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Today I found out why doctors have men “turn their heads and cough” during a physical. Pretty much all guys have been there at some point or another. The doctor asks you to drop your drawers. They slap on their latex gloves, grab your junk, and ask you to turn your head and cough. One imagines this can’t exactly be […]
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Today I found out Mark Hamill currently holds the record for playing the Batman character of “Joker” longer than any other actor and in more spinoffs. “I’ve never seen him play the Joker”, you say? It’s because Mark Hamill has been doing the voice of the Joker on a variety of animated TV shows, movies, and video games for the […]
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You should know when to use “i.e.” and when to use “e.g.” Many people use these interchangeably, but as you look into what “i.e.” and “e.g.” actually mean, you start to see how they are distinct. Specifically, “i.e.” is an abbreviation for the Latin “id est”, more or less meaning “that is”. “E.g.”, on the other hand, is an abbreviation […]
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Today I found out the male White-fronted Parrot will vomit in the female’s mouth during their mating ritual White-fronted Parrots, also known as “White-fronted Amazons” or “Spectacled Amazon Parrots”, begin their mating season around February and it lasts through June or July. (Although, this varies based on region. In some regions, their breeding season doesn’t even start until November.) After […]
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Frank Hintz: What is the origin of the word “tip” (as in leaving a tip)? You may have heard that the few hundred year old definition of “tip”, as referring to gratuity, comes from “To Insure Promptness” or similar backronyms, but this isn’t correct. In fact, pretty much anytime you’ve ever heard of a word that originated before the 20th […]
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