Ben Franklin was a man of many and varied accomplishments- a Renaissance man in the grand tradition of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a writer, scientist, musician, inventor and innovator, despite only ever receiving 2 years of formal schooling. His ideas and principles helped shape his fledgling nation, and his diplomatic skills assured the newly born United States of America […]
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Myth: The Great Chicago Fire was started by a cow. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois, burning for two days in 1871—between October 8th and October 10th. It killed hundreds of people, left more than 100,000 homeless (nearly one third of Chicago’s residents at the time), destroyed roughly 17,000 buildings, and caused a couple hundred […]
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This is a post by the authors at List25.com. For more interesting lists, subscribe to their newsletter here. 1) Pankration: While today we have MMA, the Ancient Greeks had something known as Pankration, which was something like a free-for-all hand to hand fight that mixed boxing, kicking, and wrestling. There were only two rules: don’t bite (nobody likes a biter) […]
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Corsets dominated the undergarments of wealthier women in the Western world for centuries, until WWI. So how did the war help popularize the bra? In a word, or two words in this case: metal shortage. The making of corsets required quite a bit of metal. Thus, in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board asked American women to help their “men […]
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Although modern medicine has made tremendous advances in many areas, even mapping the human genome, there remain aspects of human health that continue to elude our full understanding. Alien hand syndrome is one of these puzzles- with its sufferers having one of their hands, usually the non-dominant one, acting as if it has a mind of its own. Many of […]
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Embed This Infographic [Source: Today I Found Out] For more Language Facts see: 10 Common Word & Pronunciation Mistakes 10 Interesting Word & Phrase Facts 10 More Interesting Words & Phrases Facts The Origins of 10 Words & Phrases 10 Interesting Language Facts 10 Interesting Language Facts (Part-2)
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Steph B. asks: Why do we make toasts with drinks and why is it called that? Humans throughout history have made a habit of basing a great deal of our traditions and customs around food. The curious practice of raising our drink containers is one of the most ancient of these. To answer your question, for starters, we’ll dispel a […]
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Today I found out the origin of the Loch Ness Monster myth. Loch Ness is a long, narrow lake southwest of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. It is the second largest loch in Scotland by surface area and the largest by volume. It is also the second deepest loch, at an astounding 755 feet (230 meters) at its deepest point. […]
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While history knows him as a great Enlightenment thinker and writer, Voltaire was once Francois-Marie Arouet, the charismatic and rebellious youngest son of an upper middle-class French family. (His father was a minor treasury official and his mother from a low-ranking noble family.) After going against his father’s wishes and abandoning a promising career in law in favor of writing, […]
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Not set in stone, the English language is constantly evolving to describe new developments and experiences and to match the zeitgeist of the times. With words created out of necessity to describe a new technology, like tweet and telephone, their origins are relatively easy to trace back to the people who first invented them. With others that seem to rise […]
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Today I found out why storks are associated with delivering babies. We all know how babies are made. The stork can be seen flying over rooftops with a little cloth bundle before landing at the doorstep of a happy couple who then unwrap their precious, smiling newborn—right? This myth was once a common story to tell children who were deemed […]
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Embed This Infographic [Source: Today I Found Out] For Part 1 of this series go here: 10 Bizarre Facts For Part 2 of this series go here: 10 Bizarre Facts (Part-2) For Part 3 of this series go here: 10 Bizarre Facts (Part-3) For Part 4 of this series go here: 10 Bizarre Facts (Part-4)
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In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue… with a whole lot of maps and information about the very round Earth. Contrary to popular belief, not only did Columbus realize the world was round, so did his contemporaries. In fact, it was so well accepted that daring seafarers had been exploring the Atlantic for hundreds of years before Columbus’ time. Without […]
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Today I Found Out has teamed up with Jeremiah Warren to show his awesome “trivia” related videos here. You can subscribe to Warren’s YouTube Channel here. If you like this video and the Bonus Mother’s Day Facts below, you might also enjoy: The Woman Who Carried a Fetus in Her Body for Over 60 years The Record for the Most […]
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It is surely the stuff of science fiction: An extraordinary being arrives on Earth that can withstand a tortuous array of conditions: boiling, freezing, tremendous atmospheric pressure, near total dehydration, and exposure to massive amounts of ionizing radiation. While many joke that “cockroaches would be the only thing to survive an extreme global nuclear war”, in fact, cockroaches would not. […]
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To this day, the Siberian wilderness is still one of the most isolated places in the world. Known as the Siberian taiga (meaning “forest” in Russian), its harsh, cold climate greatly discourages human habitation. Its steep hills and difficult terrain makes it nearly impossible to travel through it, much less live there. It’s filled with pine and birch trees, nearly […]
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In 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were on the brink of possible mutual destruction- the world as a whole was facing a possible nuclear winter and all the devastation that would come with it. The Cold War had been escalated to “tepid” and was close to becoming hot with the failure of the Bay of Pigs in 1961 […]
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Today I found out the most likely origin of each of the continents’ names. (Using the seven continent model) First on this list is Africa. There are many different theories as to the origin of Africa’s name. After the Romans defeated Carthage (which is in modern-day Tunisia in Northern Africa) in the third Punic War, they called their new province […]
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