Today

Eg7Wx TIL that during the Pearl Harbor attack, multiple ships were hit, but the USS Arizona suffered the worst, losing 1,177 of 1,512 crew. Lou Conter, who survived the burning ship, was the last living Arizona survivor, passing away in 2024.

kJbL4 TIL Ernest Hemingway survived two blast-type injuries in WW1 and WW2, two plane crashes in Africa, a car accident in London during the blitz, a skylight falling onto his head in Paris and a motor vehicle accident as well as a fall from a fishing boat in Cuba. In total he had nine concussions.

786Dp TIL: In the US, performers don't get paid when their music gets played on the radio, only songwriters. If a recording artist doesn't have a writing credit on the song, they won't get paid when it is played on the radio

Zpbda TIL that building the Great Pyramid only required about 1 to 2 % of Ancient Egypt’s GDP-equivalent, according to leading Egyptologists. Despite its size, it barely strained the Old Kingdom economy, which had a huge agricultural surplus.

a8bLA TIL that in Wyoming in 1944, due to wartime shortages of metal, license plates were made of soybeans

KY1VE TIL that pigeon’s brain is no bigger than the tip of our index finger, still pigeons are actually smarter than a 3-year-old child. Research has proven that pigeons can actually tell the difference between a Monet and Picasso as well as recognize themselves in the mirror.

dDgLZ TIL that Paul McCartney's 1972 protest song "Give Ireland Back to the Irish," written in response to Bloody Sunday, was banned by the BBC in the UK. Only BBC DJ John Peel defended it, calling the ban "a much stronger political act than the contents of the record itself."

oR0Mr TIL that the U.S. Army developed technology to “see” smells using color-changing chemical sensors that identify airborne molecules for rapid threat detection.

164DV TIL almost 25% of young Nigerians have aquagenic pruritus, a skin condition where they get itchy after contact with water

GAawQ TIL - The Big Mac Index has been published since 1986 as an unofficial method to measure Purchasing Power Parity between currencies

pYj0e TIL "squirting" was what Microsoft called "sharing" MP3s via their Zune MP3 player and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tried really hard to sell the feature: "I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience."

J1oX8 TIL for decades, black US train workers were all called "George" by racist passengers. Many black workers were formerly enslaved, when they were calles by slaveholders' names. Later, racists called them by their white CEO's name, George Pullman. An early Black workers union led it to its banning.