He died nearly 800 years ago, and yet we all still know his name. From 1190 to 1227, Genghis Khan ruled an empire that eventually stretched from Russia to China. He is responsible for millions of deaths, but he also unified warring factions and brought peace and security to 5000 miles of trade routes. The complicated legacy of his Mongol […]
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We are all familiar with the colloquialism “gaydar” which refers to a person’s intuitive, and often wildly inaccurate, ability to assess the sexual orientation of another person. In the 1960s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) attempted to use a slightly more scientific, though equally flawed, approach- a machine to detect if a person was gay or not. This was […]
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Today I found out the origin of the phrase “once in a blue moon” and what a blue moon actually is. “Once in a blue moon” today means “very rarely,” though it used to mean something that was absurd, right along the lines of “when pigs fly.” The first known recorded use of a form of the phrase is in […]
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Like so many later-comedians, Bill Cosby described himself in school as “the class clown”. Born in 1937, William Henry Cosby worked at several different jobs growing up, including selling produce, stocking shelves in a supermarket, and apprenticing in a shoe repair store. He served four years in the U.S. Navy and later entered Temple University on a track and field […]
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Lions of the culinary world, the inventors of our favorite sandwiches have left a lasting legacy of portability and deliciousness. To honor their contributions to our collective satiety, we’re taking a moment to reflect on some of the sandwich world’s greatest creations… prepare to get hungry. Club A marvel of sandwich construction, the Club Sandwich consists of three slices of […]
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We’ve just launched a new Pinterest page for Today I Found Out, where we’ll be posting various picture quick facts and infographics for your reading pleasure, some from our site and some from elsewhere. So if you’re on Pinterest and are interested, please follow us here. We’ve also just added the ability for you to simply hover the mouse over […]
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Tsutomu Yamaguchi died from stomach cancer. The cancer part perhaps isn’t surprising given that Yamaguchi is currently the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as having lived through the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Note: There were actually well over a 100 or so others as well, perhaps as many as 165; they just have never […]
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Today I found out the history of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. A popular chocolate cup filled with delicious peanut butter, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were created by a man named Harry Burnett (H.B.) Reese. Reese was born May 24, 1879 in Pennsylvania to a farming family. He married in 1900 and went on to have sixteen children. (Yes, 16!) By […]
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Dev asks: Why does XOXO mean hugs and kisses? You’ve seen XO as a sign-off representing love, affection, or friendship on letters, cards, emails, chat rooms and text messages. You may have even been torn on whether or not to include both the X and the O, considering one signifies hugs and the other means kisses. Use the incorrect symbol, […]
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Gina asks: What causes SIDS and how can it be prevented? Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is every new parent’s fear. It’s defined as “the sudden death of an infant under age 1 that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation has been conducted, including a complete autopsy, an examination of the death scene, and a review of the clinical […]
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Today I found out that the makers of Barbie used to sell a doll whose breasts grew when her arm rotated. Yes, you read that correctly. It was 1975 and the doll was called “Growing Up Skipper”. When you rotated her arm, she grew an inch taller and her small breasts grew out of her plastic chest. She could return […]
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Nothing short of a room decorated in team gear epitomizes a National Football League fanatic better than an internal database of useless trivia spanning your team’s history. Read on for the origin of the nickname of your favorite NFC team. NFC East Dallas Cowboys (431-287-2) Super Bowl: (5-3) Noteworthy: With the 1st and 9th all-time rushing leaders in Emmitt Smith […]
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With the 2013 NFL season set to begin in just over three months, it’s time to start collecting trivial facts to help spice up the trash talk in your fantasy football league. Read on for the origin of the nickname of your favorite AFC team. AFC East Buffalo Bills (323-393-4) Super Bowl: (0-4) Noteworthy: Alums include O.J. Simpson, Jim Kelly […]
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James asks: Is it true that your body has no mechanism for detecting oxygen levels directly and instead measures carbon dioxide levels? That’s not entirely correct, but the human body does care more about carbon dioxide levels, than oxygen levels, something which might be surprising to some given that the purpose of breathing is to provide our bodies with the […]
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They’re coming. If you live on the Eastern seaboard of North America, prepare this summer for a large-scale invasion of a species of cicada (“cicada” being the Latin for “tree cricket”) that hasn’t happened in 17 years. You will probably hear them before you see them, as a male swarm of these insects can produce noise at over 100 dB. The […]
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Ben Franklin was a man of many and varied accomplishments- a Renaissance man in the grand tradition of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a writer, scientist, musician, inventor and innovator, despite only ever receiving 2 years of formal schooling. His ideas and principles helped shape his fledgling nation, and his diplomatic skills assured the newly born United States of America […]
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Most remember John Fitzgerald Kennedy as our youthful and inspiring 35th President who, with his elegant wife, turned the White House into Camelot until his assassination in November 1963. But what few today recall is that long before his presidency, JFK was a well-respected author and even won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1957 with Profiles in Courage. Born […]
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Myth: The Great Chicago Fire was started by a cow. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois, burning for two days in 1871—between October 8th and October 10th. It killed hundreds of people, left more than 100,000 homeless (nearly one third of Chicago’s residents at the time), destroyed roughly 17,000 buildings, and caused a couple hundred […]
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