Amit Bhatnagar asks: Where did the American tradition of trick or treating come from? The vast majority of the traditions commonly associated with Halloween today are borrowed or adapted from four different festivals, namely: The Roman Feralia festival, commemorating the dead The Roman Pomona festival, honoring the goddess of fruit and trees The Celtic festival Samuin, meaning “summer’s end”, (also […]
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Today I found out where the expression “I for one welcome our new X overlords” came from. For those not familiar with this now popular funny meme, the basic idea is to substitute X with any perceived extremely powerful entity that it would be futile to resist. A somewhat recent example of this can be seen when Ken Jennings, after […]
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This is a guest post by Dan Lewis. Dan runs the wildly popular daily newsletter Now I Know (“Learn Something New Every Day, By Email”). To subscribe to his daily email, click here. Today I found out about the mass murdering warlord turned christian evangelist who was once known as General Butt Naked. Joshua Milton Blahyi, pictured above, is a […]
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On this day in history, October 15th… 1783: The Montgolfier brothers make the world’s first hot air balloon ascent with a human inside the basket attached to the balloon. The first human aboard was Étienne Montgolfier (when testing before the public demonstration), then the second human, Pilâtre de Rozier, ascended 80 ft. at the public demonstration. About a month later, on […]
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This is a guest post by Dan Lewis. Dan runs the wildly popular daily newsletter Now I Know (“Learn Something New Every Day, By Email”). To subscribe to his daily email, click here. Today I found Out how candy pumpkins and Halloween helped change Daylight Saving Time. Before 1966, Daylight Saving Time in the United States was set via a […]
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Today I Found Out has teamed up with Jeremiah Warren to show his awesome “trivia” related videos here, along with Bonus Facts included after the video by me. I hope you enjoy his videos as much as I have. Today I found out how hurricanes are named: Bonus Hurricane Facts: Hurricanes typically die down very quickly after striking land because […]
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Myth: drinking alcohol warms your body and can be used to prevent hypothermia. In fact, drinking alcohol helps lower the core temperature of your body. This myth likely got its start thanks to the fact that drinking alcoholic beverages will make you feel warmer as your blood/alcohol level rises. As the Director of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Iowa, […]
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This is a guest post contributed by Nissi Unger “Emoticons,” short for “emotive Icons,” (emotive meaning “appealing to or expression emotion” hence “icons that express emotions”) have been around in vertical form for some time. However, sideways emoticons seem to be a surprisingly recent invention, going back just about three decades. “B4” the days of LOL and apps to aid […]
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Note: This is a guest post contributed by List25.com. Venus’s day is longer than its year. Venus completes an entire orbit around the Sun before it manages to turn on its axis once. For reference, in Venusian time, World War II ended only 56 days ago. All the stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe only comprise about 5% […]
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I’m doing a little website maintenance this weekend, moving Today I Found Out to a more powerful server as the traffic to the site has grown beyond my old dedicated server’s capacity to serve without increased page load times, especially when there are large random surges of traffic *stares accusingly at reddit*. Even when not getting big surges, though, the […]
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Today I found out Steve Jobs’ first business was selling “blue boxes” that allowed users to get free phone service illegally. These boxes were designed in 1972 by Jobs’ close friend and future co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. The idea to sell them was supposedly Jobs’. The two learned about blue boxes from famed “phreaker” (phone freak/hacker) John “Cap’n Crunch” […]
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Ron asks: Why did people think the Moon was made out of green cheese? Because it was formed in the Milky Way… *crickets* In fact, nobody really ever thought the Moon was made of green cheese… Well, there are nutters out there, so it’s possible that there was at least one person who thought the Moon was made of cheese, […]
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The first Today I found out email subscription contest ended October 1st. (If you haven’t already, you can subscribe here to be a part of future contests and get free interesting articles every morning in your inbox.) I’m still waiting to hear back from the two runner up winners ($50 VISA gift card going to both, so check your email […]
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Embed This Infographic Source: Today I Found Out More Common Misconceptions Dispelled 10 Common Misconceptions Dispelled Part 1 10 Common Misconceptions Dispelled Part 2 10 Common Misconceptions Dispelled Part 3 10 Common Misconceptions Dispelled Part 4 10 Common Misconceptions Dispelled Part 5
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Scott T. asks: Why are carved pumpkins called “Jack O’ Lanterns”? The name “Jack O’ Lantern” was originally one of the numerous names given to ignis fatuus (Medieval Latin for “foolish fire”), another of which is “Will O’ the Wisps”, basically the odd light that can occasionally be seen over marshes, swamps, and the like. (See: What Causes Will O’ […]
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Today I found out four of the five Marx brothers got their nicknames during a poker game. The famed Marx family comedy act was made up of Julius, Adolph, Leonard, Milton, and Herbert Marx. But to all of us who know and love this delightful comedy group, we know these five characters better as Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo […]
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Myth: Mice love cheese and it makes a great bait for mouse traps. In fact, as any pest exterminator or pet shop owner knows, mice don’t really like cheese at all and they’ll even actively shy away from certain types of cheese (they have a very sensitive sense of smell and certain cheeses give off odors that are repulsive to […]
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