“Pardon my French, but you’re an asshole! Asshole!” –Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) Centuries before Cameron shouted this over the phone to principal Ed Rooney, English-speaking people had been using the phrase “Pardon my French” to excuse their use of profanity. But why is it French and not Chinese, Swahili or nothing at all? The answer lies in European history. […]
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Hollywood Medical Myths Part 3: You should put a bite block in the mouth of someone having a seizure. Seizures seem to be an ailment that befalls numerous actors in everything from movies to television shows. Whether it’s the condition that leads to their immediate death on screen, or just a reaction to some dramatic situation, the quivering usually leads […]
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Today in History: October 8, 1918 Corporal Alvin C. York, while at the head of a small detachment near the Meuse River in the Argonne Forest in France, killed at least 20 German soldiers and captured an additional 132 men, which later earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. York was born in a log cabin near the Tennessee-Kentucky border […]
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Falling into the category of “you can’t make this up,” is the parasitic barnacle Sacculina. Shedding its hard shell and injecting itself into the body of a host crab, Sacculina becomes its puppet master, preventing the crab from molting, growing, regenerating, digesting and reproducing. Instead, the reprogrammed crab directs all of its energy to nourishing the Sacculina and caring for […]
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Today I found out that the first man to walk in space almost got stuck out there. That lucky individual was Alexei Leonov, who was born in the Soviet Union on May 30, 1934. He was one of the twenty Soviet Air Force Pilots to be chosen for the first cosmonaut group. Originally, his historic walk was supposed to have […]
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Today in History: October 7, 1975 A deportation order for John Lennon was reversed on this day in 1975, which allowed Lennon to legally remain in his adoptive home of New York City with his wife, Yoko Ono. After the invasion of Cambodia on April 30, 1970, and the shootings of four student protestors at Kent State just four days […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Hollywood Medical Myths Part 2: Injecting Medicine Into Your Heart can Be Beneficial Ah, the dramatic scene that ends with an actor stabbing a needle straight into their heart, narrowly escaping death and magically curing whatever ailment just befell them. While very […]
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When people make lists of the greatest athletes of the 20th century, they are populated with the usual suspects: Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Wayne Gretzky, Jim Brown, Pele… but there is one name that should always make the list even though many people, even the biggest sports fans, may not recognize it, or if they do, […]
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The term “mind control” conjures up visions of someone manipulating people from the outside, such as an evil, brainwashing scientist or a supernatural being that takes dominion of a person just with the power of his mind. But since people don’t experience this in their daily lives, most don’t believe in mind control, and think of it as just a […]
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Today in History: October 4th, 2011 On this day in history, 2011, a great injustice to one man, Michael Morton, that has since inspired a book (Depraved Prosecution) and a documentary (An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story), was undone. On August 13, 1986, Christine Morton (age 31) was found by a neighbor beaten to death in her bed in […]
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Mark asks: Who invented spoons and forks? Spoons Spoons are one of the oldest eating utensils on the planet. This isn’t particularly surprising if one considers that nearly as long as humans have needed food, they’ve required something to scoop it up with. Unlike knives and forks, that for the most part needed to be fashioned, natural spoons could be […]
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Pro civil rights, environmental legislation, peace, universal health care and progressive policies (including raising taxes)- your granddaddy wouldn’t recognize the GOP of today. Birth of a Party By the mid-19th century, the fabric of the United States was being torn apart by slavery. The famous 1820 agreement, the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited the spread of slavery in much of […]
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After years of having it on the “To-Do” list, we’re officially launching our YouTube Channel with this as our debut video. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to make sure you don’t miss future TodayIFoundOut videos, which like our articles will be on a variety of topics and chock full of interesting, well researched facts. Thanks! Transcript: #1: Avast, Definition: “stop” […]
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Today in History: October 3rd: 1863: Lincoln Proclaims Thanksgiving an Official Holiday After the tireless efforts of the author of Mary Had a Little Lamb (and the “Oprah” of her day), Sarah Hale, to get a national Thanksgiving holiday created, President Abraham Lincoln declared on this day in history, 1863- just a few days after receiving Hale’s final letter on […]
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Today I found out about the history of toast. The history of toast begins, of course, with bread. The earliest archaeological evidence of flour dates back some 30,000 years, and it’s likely people were making flatbreads around that time, too. Along with being a staple food in many civilizations, ritual bread was sometimes used as an offering to the gods […]
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For part 1 of this series, see: How Pilates Caused a Woman’s Body to “Swallow” Her Breast Imagine- your wife begins to think you’re a closet alcoholic, so she purchases a breathalyzer to test your blood alcohol content (BAC) throughout the day. Your doctors concur with her assessment, thinking you’re sneaking off into dark corners to imbibe without the judging […]
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Today Day in History: October 2, 1950 The First Peanuts comic strip was published: Peanuts, written by Charles Schulz and one of the most influential and beloved comic strips of all time, made its debut on this day in 1950 in nine different newspapers. What made Peanuts especially remarkable for its time was its astute social commentary, especially when compared […]
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Since before the U.S. was a country, juries in the American system of justice were being impaneled to be the “triers of evidence,” or as a recent President of the United States described it, the “deciders.” In criminal cases in the U.S., the jury’s decision-making power is enormous, and includes the legal privilege to even acquit a person who has […]
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