This Day In History: October 10, 732 C.E. The Battles of Tours was not a war of nations, but rather a battle of civilizations between Islam and Christian Europe. The Muslims had been conquering the remains of the Roman and Persian empires and were heading toward modern day France to continue their expansion. The Frankish King Charles (“The Hammer”) Martel […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn how the tradition of throwing coins in fountains got started and why we still do it to this day. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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It was early May of 1965, the Beatles were busy in Twickenham studios in London, working on their second movie “Help!” During a break in filming, their manager, Brian Epstein, showed up in a dither and assembled them in a dressing room. “I’ve got some news for you, the Prime Minister and the Queen have awarded you an M.B.E.” If […]
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Ask most movie fans, “What was the first ‘talkie’?” The most frequent reply tends to be “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson. This is a “sort of” correct answer, but not really. The earliest “sound” movies were made by synchronizing motion pictures to phonograph records. In 1926, (a year before “The Jazz Singer”) Warner Brothers re-released the previously silent film […]
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This Day In History: October 9, 1635 On October 9, 1635, a Puritan minister named Roger Williams, who had fled England in 1630 with the hope of escaping religious persecution, was banished from Massachusetts because of the same sort of intolerance he had faced back home. His crime? Advocating complete religious tolerance and speaking out against the confiscation of Native […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn what would happen if you froze water in a container that didn’t allow the ice to expand. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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Lori asks: When you ask someone a question where they have to remember something, everyone seems to look up and off to the side. Why do we do this? Down and to the left, straight-head but unfocused, and, of course, up and to the right, when asked a tough question or to recall a long-buried memory, most of us shift […]
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Gage A. asks: Was the man in the iron mask a real person? On November 19, 1703, a tomb in the Bastille’s Saint Paul Cemetery welcomed the corpse of a man who had spent almost the last four decades of his life in various prisons of France. He is without a doubt the most famous prisoner in French history, even though […]
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This Day In History: October 8, 1971 John Lennon’s second solo album Imagine, the follow-up to John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, was released on October 8, 1971 in the U.K. (It had been released the previous month in the U.S.) Imagine was an artistic and commercial triumph, and proved to be the high water mark of Lennon’s career until his final […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn how exactly smoke alarms detect smoke. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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Eliminating the unnecessary u, many duplicate consonants, the redundant e, converting diphthongs into simple vowels and turning the combination of e and r at the end of a word the right way around, Americans significantly changed the spelling of many English words. And it was done with the best of intentions – to make spelling easier. American English began to […]
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Tom R. asks: Who invented tasers? Early use of an electronic control device, like the TASER, by law enforcement occurred in the 1960s when American police officers used electric cattle prods to disperse Civil Rights activists. As for the earliest cattle prods, this came about when inventor John Burton of Wichita, Kansas received a patent (US427549 A) in the late […]
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This Day In History: October 7, 1943 On Wake Atoll in the South Pacific, there is a gravel path edged by white coral leading away from the road and toward the water. On the shore of the turquoise lagoon, the highest coral boulder bears a chiseled inscription. It reads: “98 US PW, 5-10-43.” This is a self-written epitaph of a […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn how exactly figure skaters are able to spin around at incredible rates without seemingly getting dizzy at all. [TRANSCRIPT] And for those curious about more detail in terms of the physics of how figure skaters are able to spin so fast, you can read up more on it here. Don’t miss future episodes […]
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Sarah H. asks: Why do Americans only use toilet paper and not bidets? A mini-shower for your nether region, bidets are a popular way worldwide to keep said regions tidy, and there are plenty of extremely inexpensive options for easily outfitting any standard toilet with one. So why has this popular bathroom fixture not caught on in the United States? […]
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Kelly asks: Is it true that men snore more than women? If it is true, why and if not where did this stereotype come from? Thanks! When humans sleep, the muscles around our throats relax and cause the airways to narrow. Snoring occurs when certain soft tissues—such as the soft palate (or roof of the mouth), the uvula (the dangling […]
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This Day In History: October 6, 1866 An innovation in the world of Wild West crime was made on October 6, 1866 when the Reno gang committed the first robbery ever made on a moving train. (There was an earlier one committed by guerrilla soldiers in 1865, but it’s thought to have taken place while the train was stopped). Robbing […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Why Asparagus Makes Pee Smell The smell comes from the way certain chemical compounds in asparagus break down inside people’s bodies. This is why cooking asparagus in various ways does not result in the same smelly byproduct; the specific digestive enzymes that […]
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