r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 16h ago
TIL that Checkers has been a solved game for almost 20 years. Optimal play is unbeatable, and two opponents playing optimally always reach a stalemate.
researchgate.net
28.7k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 7h ago
TIL that in 2020, Justin Montney lost his fiancée, Alexis-Athena Wyatt, in a car crash. When he attempted to get a refund from the photography company he had hired for their wedding, they not only refused but released a statement mocking him.
15.2k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Keobooks • 21h ago
TIL: Roosevelt is on the dime because he founded the March of Dimes foundation for polio research
10.1k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/RainyWanderlust • 8h ago
TIL about the “blob” slime mould. It has almost 720 sexes, can heal itself, and has no brain, but is able to transmit knowledge if merged with another blob.
8.5k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/kevlarbuns • 12h ago
TIL member of the Donner Party, Lewis Keseberg, was accused of killing and consuming multiple, including children, by the rescue party. He was found with the corpse of Tamsen Donner, and had hidden her remaining money. He later sued for defamation, insisting he only ate those who died of exposure.
5.5k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/leafpool2014 • 18h ago
TIL that in WW2, Poland declared war on Japan. Japan rejected there declaration of war. Quote: “We do not accept Poland’s challenge. The Poles, fighting for their freedom, only declared war on us under pressure from the United Kingdom.”A curious case: Poland only declared war on one country in WWII;
outono.net
5.5k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 17h ago
TIL After the "Fight Of The Century" Muhammad Ali refused to admit defeat and sought to define the outcome in the publics mind as a "White Man's Decision". Ali later on defeated Frazier in their third and final bout at the Thrilla in Manilia in 1975
4.2k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/thebigchil73 • 7h ago
TIL that the ‘high’ from gambling isn’t connected to winning - the dopamine rush peaks at exactly 50:50 probability. Gamblers get a rush when the roulette wheel is spinning but their pleasure is largely unaffected whether they win or lose.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
4.2k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Dash795 • 21h ago
TIL that PA allows an addicted gambler to file a self-exclusion so that person can’t enter a PA casino for up to five years (can’t cancel it) and if you violate the voluntary self-exclusion after filing (by relapsing and gong to a PA casino) then you can be charged with criminal trespass.
responsibleplay.pa.gov
2.8k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/an_aficionado • 14h ago
TIL that ancient Greek and Latin texts were often written without spaces between words. This style of writing, known as scriptio continua, meant that a sentence could look likeone long stringofletters, and readers had to figure out where each word began and ended.
2.5k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 17h ago
TIL that King George III originally planned to abdicate the throne in favor of his eldest son - the future King George IV - and exile himself to Hanover in March 1783 after Great Britain lost the American colonies in the Revolutionary War. However, he remained on the throne until his death in 1820.
2.4k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Doten1 • 23h ago
TIL that the Mamluks were enslaved soldiers who rose to power, established a dynasty that lasted over 250 years. They went on to defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 and capture the last major Crusader stronghold in 1291, ending nearly two centuries of Crusader rule in the region.
2.2k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Skaterose6 • 10h ago
TIL Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a well-known game-day superstition where he wears the same pair of red underwear for every game of his NFL career.
1.5k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 16h ago
TIL the oldest surviving liquid wine in the world was discovered in a first-century Roman glass urn containing intact wine. The urn was discovered in 2019 in Spain.
1.4k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/MajesticBread9147 • 16h ago
TIL Director Doris Wishman's film Nude on the Moon was banned in New York after the New York State Censorship Board determined that movies about nudist colonies on earth were permissible, but nudist colonies on the moon were not.
1.3k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Carboncopy99 • 16h ago
TIL in 1384 a woman was crowned the King of Poland. Historian Robert W. Knoll suggests that Jadwiga of Poland was made king to ensure her future husband could not automatically become king without the Polish nobles’ consent.
589
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/MississippiJoel • 15h ago
TIL the youngest pope was also the only one to serve more than once. Pope Benedict IX, the nephew of two other popes, was elected at 20 because of a bribery scheme, was deposed, returned to reclaim the papacy, abdicated to marry his cousin, returned again, and was deposed again to die in obscurity.
509
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 13h ago
TIL that the actor Leslie Howard, most famous for playing Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With The Wind" was killed in a plane crash in WWII when his civilian aircraft BOAC Flight 777 was shot down by German aircraft, killing everyone aboard.
451
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 6h ago
TIL that before the Black Death in Europe, there was the Plague of Justinian. The plague weakened the Byzantine Empire's economy and caused the empire's decline.
406
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/NBrief • 13h ago
TIL Before becoming a country-pop star, Shania Twain performed in a Las Vegas-style show at an Ontario resort, where a music industry lawyer noticed her talent and helped get her demo to Nashville.
nmc.emuseum.com
307
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/TapFar687 • 7h ago
TIL of The Law School of Berytus (also known as the law school of Beirut), a center for the study of Roman law in classical antiquity. It flourished under the patronage of the Roman emperors and functioned as the Roman Empire's center of jurisprudence until its destruction in AD 551.
129
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/chirpchirphoot • 14h ago
TIL that the Ethiopian-Adal war was a war fought between the Ethiopian Empire and the Adal Sultanate (In modern day Somalia), which saw some of the earliest use of firearms between two Subsaharan African nations. The Ethiopians were backed by the Portuguese and the Adalites by the Ottomans.
110
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 5h ago
TIL in feudal England, tenants paid quit rent to free themselves from performing obligations required under feudal tenure. As the British Empire expanded, so did the practice. In colonial America, it was used to administer land and collect revenue.
en.wikipedia.org
99
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/tipputappi • 17h ago
TIL about Edenton Tea Party held in Edenton , NC. It was one of the first protests organized by women in US
95
Upvotes