Today I Learned (TIL)

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/UndyingCorn on 2025-03-15 13:38:02+00:00.

Original Title: TIL There was a phenomenon called Souperism during the Irish Famine. Schools were set up in which starving children were fed, on the condition of receiving Protestant religious instruction. However those who “took the soup” were often reviled by their peers, and the stigma lasted past the famine.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ICanStopTheRain on 2025-03-15 13:18:18+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that there is a village (pop. 58) in Missouri named Tightwad, said to be named after a local store owner who overcharged his customers. Tightwad Bank was opened to capitalize on the name, and at one point had $20 million in deposits.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TirelessGuardian on 2025-03-15 12:41:13+00:00.

Original Title: TIL In 1983, it was announced on radio that the hard to find Cabbage Patch Dolls would be dropped from a plane at County Stadium. People just needed to hold up a catcher’s mitt and their credit card, to be photographed by the plane. 20-30 people fell for the prank and showed up at the stadium.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/1000LiveEels on 2025-03-15 12:30:05+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the "sensation novel" was popular from the 1860s to 1890s, particularly in Great Britain. Sensation novels often were melodramas themed around socially taboo and shocking subjects like robbery, murder, seduction, kidnapping and adultery, typically in a domestic setting.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/skidSurya on 2025-03-15 09:30:40+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about the rare phenomenon of an "en caul" birth, where a baby is born still enclosed within the amniotic sac. Unlike typical births, where the sac breaks before delivery, in these cases, the baby emerges in a transparent bubble-like membrane. This occurrence is less than 1 in 80,000 births

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Ainsley-Sorsby on 2025-03-15 08:25:56+00:00.

Original Title: TIL in 1878 Vera Zasulich shot and seriously wounded Fyodor Trepov, the notoriously cruel governor of St Petersburg, after he ordered the flogging of a political prisoner who refused to remove his hat in his presence. A sympathetic judge and jury, and a skilled lawyer led to her getting acquitted

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/JoeyZasaa on 2025-03-15 07:20:44+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ProudReaction2204 on 2025-03-15 06:41:56+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Jerald terHorst was Gerald Ford's press secretary for only month. He resigned after Ford granted Nixon a pardon, which he found especially unconscionable in light of Ford's refusal to pardon draft dodgers during the Vietnam War

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TriviaDuchess on 2025-03-15 04:11:22+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in 1857, New York City installed eleven 47-foot cast-iron fire lookout towers across the city. These towers were manned by volunteers as an early detection system to help protect a city largely built of wood. Today, only one remains, located in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Comfortable_Ad2908 on 2025-03-15 03:06:06+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that being "smooth brained" is an actual disorder called Lissencephaly, it's rare and results in a lot of problems, like seizures, severe mental/physical disabilities, and a much lower life expectancy, treatments have gotten better though

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Animal-Lover-414 on 2025-03-15 02:59:11+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Shalmanese on 2025-03-15 01:58:22+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/AliveChart430 on 2025-03-15 01:46:37+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/edfitz83 on 2025-03-15 01:12:13+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ICanStopTheRain on 2025-03-15 00:46:57+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the 188 highest mountains are all in Asia. #189, Aconcagua, is in Argentina. It’s considered an easy climb by mountaineering standards, but so many people try to climb it that deaths happen every year.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ProudReaction2204 on 2025-03-15 00:02:34+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/1000LiveEels on 2025-03-15 00:00:31+00:00.

Original Title: TIL from the 1970s to 1990s, the South African apartheid government conducted "Project Coast," a program where they investigated using recreational drugs, snake venom, pheromones, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, pesticides, poisons, and more as biological weapons for both war and crowd control.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/exophades on 2025-03-14 23:44:29+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/broadenandbuild on 2025-03-14 22:51:06+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ajoeyr on 2025-03-14 22:48:50+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that a lot of soldiers during WW2 were using and abusing hard drugs. Japanese, American and British forces consumed large amounts of amphetamines, but the Germans were the most enthusiastic early adopters, pioneering pill-popping on the battlefield during the initial phases of the war.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/truthisfictionyt on 2025-03-14 19:55:44+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/sabretoooth on 2025-03-14 22:32:23+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/soloman747 on 2025-03-14 21:03:45+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about Anne Green, who was sentenced to death by hanging over the murder of her stillborn child, revived back to life by blowing smoke up her butt and placing her in bed with another woman, recovered completely, and was pardoned.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Dangerous-Ball-7340 on 2025-03-14 20:48:06+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/trey0824 on 2025-03-14 20:12:17+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that in 1845, the screw-driven HMS Rattler proved the superiority of screw propellers over paddle wheels by winning a 100-mile race against the paddle-driven HMS Alecto. Rattler then towed Alecto backward at almost 3 knots in a tug-of-war, leading to the rise of screw propulsion in ship design.