Today in History: March 21, 1965 On March 25, 1965, civil rights demonstrators marched into Montgomery, Alabama led by Dr. Martin Luther King singing: Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on. I’ve never been to heaven, but I think I’m right, You won’t find George Wallace anywhere in sight… It took the non-violent protestors five days to […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn how running out of a certain ingredient led to one of the most popular cookies of all time, the chocolate chip cookie. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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Scott asks: What’s the difference between hares and rabbits? Is it just two names for the same thing? Rabbits and hares are often confused for one another, so much so that to many the two names are interchangeable in casual conversation. When you learn that jackrabbits are actually a type of hare, and that there’s a breed of rabbit called […]
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Why “Hank” is Short for “Henry” This is thought to be thanks to the one time popular suffix “-kin,” which is also how “Jack” originally derived from the name “John.” Specifically, the suffix “-kin,” simply indicated “little,” so Robin Hood’s “Little John” would have been aptly named “Jockin,” which later gave rise to “Jenkin,” then “Jakin,” and then “Jack,” with […]
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You probably already knew that Disney has a habit of taking dark, twisted children’s fairy tales and turning them into sickeningly sweet happily-ever-afters. Take Sleeping Beauty for example: it’s based on a story where a married king finds a girl asleep, and can’t wake her so rapes her instead. The 1940 version of Pinocchio is no exception. The movie is […]
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Today in History: March 20, 1345 On March 20, 1345 a planetary alignment occurred that some medieval scholars believed caused the Black Death, otherwise known as the plague. At 1 p.m., a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars occurred in the 40th degree of Aquarius. Each of these planets were associated with specific bodily humors. These three planets in […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn about the surprising dominance of the electric car in the late 19th and early 20th century and what exactly caused the downfall of this type of automobile. Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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Today I found out they named Parkinson’s disease after a man who was involved in an assassination attempt on King George III. Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder characterized by tremors or shaking, with this particular symptom of the progressive disease resulting from dopamine generating cell death in a part of the substantia nigra region of the brain . The […]
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Witty, prickly, bitter and brilliant, for 50 odd years, author and newspaperman Ambrose Bierce eloquently chronicled the latter half of the 19th, and first few years of the 20th, centuries. From moving descriptions of Civil War events, to scathing rebukes of the worst of the Gilded Age, all interspersed with tales of the supernatural, Bierce’s unique voice has left us […]
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Amanda asks: What is gluten and why is it bad for you? These days, just casually strolling down a grocery aisle, one can find a multitude of gluten-free products. From gluten-free whole grain bread to gluten-free beer to gluten-free Betty Crocker chocolate brownie mix, the market for food items without gluten has exploded over the past decade. But is gluten […]
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Today in History: March 19, 1953 On March 19, 1953, after almost 40 years of making movies, pioneering director Cecil B. DeMille was finally awarded an Oscar: “Best Picture” for his movie The Greatest Show on Earth, starring Charlton Heston and Betty Hutton. DeMille was one of the visionaries behind the creation of the motion picture. Along with Jesse Lasky […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn about the 17 year old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back, then promptly was kicked out of Minor and Major League baseball. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their new site. Most of us have probably laughed at someone on television getting shocked by a stun gun. They tense up and fall to […]
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Rouise asks: Why do we cross our fingers for luck and when we’re lying? It’s odd that the same gesture is used for both. Turns out, people have been crossing their fingers for luck for centuries. The exact origins of this practice aren’t definitively known, but historians have a couple theories as to how the modern practice came about, though […]
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Today I found out about the year’s “free wages” that led to Harper Lee writing To Kill a Mockingbird. The book, which was Lee’s first and only published novel until recently, was heralded as an “instant classic” when it was published in 1960, and it is a staple in high school classrooms today. But it might not exist at all […]
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Today in History March 18, 2005 On March 18, 2005, Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed 15 years after the 41 year-old woman had collapsed and her heart stopped beating, initially thought to be because of a severe potassium imbalance in her body owing to unhealthy dieting. Her brain was oxygen-deprived for ten minutes, causing massive and irreversible brain damage […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn about the origin of James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which it might surprise you to learn were written by the same author. This episode is brought you by lynda.com, which is actually where TodayIFoundOut’s video person, Verity, learned how to make the videos here in the first place. When we got […]
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Despite the awesomeness that is the 300 film (and the sequel)- the epic battles, the amazing directing, the incredible cinematography by Zack Snyder, and all the impressive special effects- our mission in this site is very specific, and thus, this article focuses on the historical inaccuracies of this movie. Identifying some of these historical inaccuracies, starting from Sparta’s then-political system, […]
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