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TIL in a relatively massive scientific discovery around 1676, Danish astronomer Ole Roemer was the first to calculate that light travels at a finite speed. He studied Jupiter's moons and determined their eclipses happened sooner than predicted when the Earth was closer to Jupiter.

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JRg1 TIL the USS Pueblo crewmen stuck up their middle finger in photos when they were captured in North Korea. They said it was a “Hawaiian Good Luck sign”. Then the TIME magazine ran a photo and wrote the real explanation. The next day the Koreans found out what it meant, and the crewmen were tortured.
9YN5m TIL in 2004, two Brazillians were arrested in Miami International, after one, asked about his air pump, said that he was carrying a “bomba” (Portugese for “pump”). This, complete with an “it might explode” comment from the other Brazilian, led to both being imprisoned.
R745w TIL Tim Wong made the first and only successful attempt at singlehandedly repopulating the extremely rare pipevine swallowtail butterfly in San Francisco. In seven years, he cultivated more than 200 pipevine plants (sole food source) and donates thousands of caterpillars to the Botanical Gardens.
R78G9 TIL that Sammy Davis Jr didn’t only overcome racism over being black when he became famous in the 50s. He was one of the first openly bisexual pop singers, he was Jewish in perhaps the most anti-Semitic period in modern American history, and he only had one eye!
MeNR0 TIL during WW2, the Nazis fell for a plot, masterminded by James Bond author Ian Fleming to pass off a dead tramp as an officer carrying secret documents, to convince the Germans to divert troops from Sicily ahead of the successful Allied invasion of the island.