Today I found out that the British once planned to construct a massive aircraft carrier during World War II… made of ice. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as crazy as it sounds at first glance. Britain was taking a beating from the German ships and submarines and were looking for something to build a ship out of that couldn’t be destroyed by […]
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In today’s episode, you’ll learn about one of the most remarkable events in WWI- when soldiers on both sides decided to defy orders and, instead of continuing to try to kill one another, got up out of the trenches and threw a spontaneous Christmas party together. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You […]
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A former teammate of Babe Ruth’s once recalled the Bambino by saying, “You’ve got to remember, this guy wasn’t born. He fell out of a tree.” Ruth grabbed life by the throat (or maybe it was another part of life’s anatomy) and shook it up… frequently. Ruth spent a good portion of his youth cooped up in St. Mary’s industrial […]
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Whether it’s busting or breaking, balls or stones, this expression has long been used by young men (and not a few women) to express a wide range of emotions brought about by the words or actions of another. Although the phrase usually accompanies laughter, it arose out of a truly painful, yet common practice among beef cattle operators where they […]
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Odds are you probably have a stick or a tub of it sitting in your fridge right now, but do you have any idea how margarine became a staple in most kitchens? It turns out, margarine has a long and controversial international history, and can even boast the involvement of Emperor Napoleon III in its invention. Margarine derives its name […]
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The modern, multi-coloured plastic water guns are a familiar sight, and you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find out they’ve been around for a while. That said, it might surprise you to learn that records show they likely pre-date the American Civil War, at least in some form or another. Back in 1861, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to […]
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The last couple days, you may have noticed our new podcast posts, starting with Episode 1: Columbus and the Round World Episode 2: Growing Up with Caffeine We’ve teamed up with SpokenMatter.com to start producing this “Daily Knowledge” podcast series featuring interesting facts discussed in detail with a new episode every weekday. Give the episodes a listen at the above […]
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As you can probably tell from its name, the Christmas Island red crab is a species of crab native to Christmas Island. Every year, millions of them will leave their forest burrows and swarm across the island to breed, leaving Christmas Island’s residents to deal with the consequences of their homes being overrun by crabs that outnumber the human populace […]
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Everyone has had a moment in their life where they’ve muttered to themselves, “Wow, where did the time go?” It may have been after a wild night of partying, or a great conversation with a friend, or while intensely concentrating on a project. Sometimes hours can feel like minutes, weeks feel like days, years feel like months. Time comes and […]
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Becky asks: Why is there a dance called “Sadie Hawkins”? Was this a real person? Sadie Hawkins’ renown, which evolved into an American folk-holiday in some places, doesn’t really originate from a dance, but rather from a race, as we shall soon see. Sadie was the product of the fertile imagination of cartoonist Al Capp. She was a character in […]
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Jeremy asks: Why do we drop the ball on New Year’s eve in Times Square? When Adolph Ochs purchased the floundering New York Times in 1896, he made it his mission to make the newspaper the number one paper in all of New York. He started by forming the New York Times Company and made himself the majority owner, ensuring […]
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Centuries in the making, Modern French owes its existence to a strange combination of conquest, evolution, authoritarian control and revolution. Linguistic Ancestors Long before it was France, Gaul (as it was known to the Romans) was occupied by a variety of Celtic tribes. After Julius Caesar conquered it in the 1st century BC (veni, vidi, vici), native Celtic tongues were […]
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I’m extremely excited to announce that after a little over eight solid months of work, Today I Found Out‘s first book is now out: The Wise Book of Whys featuring over 100 different topics such as Why New York is Called “The Big Apple” and Why We Sing “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve, along with many an interesting […]
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The final resting place of presidents, bandleaders, war heroes, astronauts, inventors, civil rights leaders, Pulitzer Prize winners, boxers, Supreme Court justices and sports stars, Arlington National Cemetery stands as a memorial to the melting pot of the United States. With connections to some of our nation’s most influential people and pivotal events, its history is as interesting as its denizens. […]
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When it comes to science, we think there’s a saying that is fairly applicable, “who dares, wins”. Fans of military history may recognise that as the motto of the Special Air Services (SAS). However, we feel scientists and researchers deserve to use it just as much, because sometimes they take risks too. Just ask Barry J. Marshall if you don’t […]
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Mark J. asks: Can people actually cash those big novelty checks? The giant novelty check (cheque to our readers of the non-American persuasion) is a comedy staple, even if you’ve never been lucky enough to handle one in real life, you’ve likely drawn a cartoonishsly huge moustache on a picture of someone holding one in a newspaper. (Just me?) You’ve […]
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Today I found out about Project Pigeon and Project X-Ray, WWII plans to use pigeons to guide missiles and (literal) bat bombers. The man behind Project Pigeon was famed American behaviorist and Harvard professor B.F. Skinner, who teamed with the U.S. Army to develop such a system. Pigeons were trained using operant conditioning, a type of learning pioneered by Skinner […]
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Today I found out about John Billington, the first convicted murderer in America. John Billington was around 40 years old when he disembarked the Mayflower in New England in November, 1620. Like most of the other adult males on the ship, he had signed the Mayflower Compact prior to setting foot on American soil. The Compact had been drawn up […]
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