In May 1972 in a uranium enrichment plant in France, scientists examining ore from a mine in Gabon, West Africa, discovered that a natural nuclear reactor had spontaneously manifested in that region in the Earth’s primordial past, churning out approximately 100 Kw worth of energy continuously for a few hundred thousand years about 1.7 billion years ago. In order to […]
Read more
Today I found out why barbecues are called that. The word “barbecue” comes from the Caribbean word “barbacoa.” Originally, a barbacoa wasn’t a way of cooking food, but the name of a wooden structure used by Taino Indians to smoke their food. Due to the known diets of the Indians in question, it’s likely that the first barbecue consisted of […]
Read more
Today I found out about the use of exploding anti-tank dogs during World War II. These dogs, usually Alsatians, were also called “Hundminen” or “dog mines.” They were trained to carry explosives on their bodies to enemy tanks, where they would then be detonated. No, it did not end very well for the dogs in question. This type of animal […]
Read more
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Why a Turkey is Called a Turkey In the sixteenth century, when North American turkeys were first introduced en masse to Europe, there was another bird that was popularly imported throughout Europe and, most relevant to this article, England, called a guinea […]
Read more
Mark asks: Who was the first comedian to do the slippery banana peel routine? There are some things in this world that are just inherently funny; a pie in the face, an unexpected squirting flower, and a kitten in a shark costume riding a roomba chasing after a duck are just a few of the best examples. But nothing has […]
Read more
Today I found out that during the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes. We […]
Read more
On May 8, 1828, the man who founded The International Committee of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, was born. In 1922, almost a century after his birth, the eighth of May was declared a day dedicated to the International Red Cross, in this way honoring its founder. Dunant’s dream was to prevent and alleviate human suffering, without discrimination. Despite being […]
Read more
Today I found out about Amy and Katie, the twins born 87 days apart. Maria Jones-Elliot of Waterford, Ireland, was just 23 weeks pregnant when she went into labour with her twins in 2012. She was understandably worried—it isn’t until 24 weeks that doctors now consider a pregnancy viable (that is, the baby could potentially live outside of the womb […]
Read more
Think back to when you were a child visiting your grandparent’s home. Do you recall a distinct scent when you walked through the door? Many people do and it turns out, it’s not just in your head. Gerontologist and author of A New Wrinkle: What I Learned from Older People Who Never Acted Their Age, Dr. Eric Shapira, says it […]
Read more
Today I found out how tennis shoes came to be called sneakers. When it comes to athletic shoes, calling them something like “walkers” or “runners” seems more appropriate than calling them “sneakers.” These days most people don’t use their sneakers for sneaking, but back in the day they were associated with people who were up to no good and sneaking […]
Read more
For those of you in the United States who are about to celebrate Thanksgiving and want to look particularly knowledgey at your family get-together, here is a roundup of all the Thanksgiving related articles we’ve made here at TodayIFoundOut for you to peruse. Or, you know- don’t. But when there are awkward pauses in the conversation at your Thanksgiving parties, […]
Read more
Noah K. asks: Who invented braille? Braille was invented by a nineteenth century man named Louis Braille, who was completely blind. Braille’s story starts when he was three years old. He was playing in his father’s shop in Coupvray, France, and somehow managed to injure his eye. Though he was offered the best medical attention available at the time, it […]
Read more
Since long before colonoscopies, mammograms and physicals (turn your head and cough), patients have had a love-hate relationship with doctors. Often uncomfortable (or downright awful), the procedures employed by physicians are frequently met with distrust and revulsion (until those methods achieve desired results). This was no different during the early years of modern medicine when one practice in particular, human […]
Read more
In the early days of the United States, cotton and tobacco crops on the east coast are remembered as big contributors to the ongoing slave trade. Meanwhile, the sugar cane plantations in Louisiana are often forgotten. Because of the back-breaking work of maintaining the sugar cane crops, white settlers started importing African slaves to do the work for them. It […]
Read more
Today I found out about Audie Murphy, the most decorated U.S. World War II veteran. Murphy was born on June 20, 1925 in Texas. His family was extremely poor, partially due to having twelve young mouths to feed. When his father abandoned the family when Audie was fifteen years old, he was forced to pick up some of the slack […]
Read more
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Difference Between an Asteroid and a Comet A comet is simply a relatively small astronomical object that has a “tail”, known as a coma, which makes up a temporary atmosphere for the comet. Asteroids, on the other hand, do not exhibit […]
Read more
“We shall look over the world, and survey the history of any other oppressed and enslaved people in vain, to find one which has made more progress within the same length as the colored people of the United States. These, and many other considerations which I might name, give brightness and fervor to my hopes that that better day for […]
Read more
In Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. Despite two official investigations concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the President, doubts linger. This is due in no small part to the fact that neither Oswald, nor the official account, has ever been put on trial. Without the […]
Read more