This Day In History: March 20, 1985 On this day in history, 1985, paraplegic Rick Hansen sets out to circumnavigate the land masses of the world in a wheelchair. Hansen was inspired by Terry Fox, the Canadian athlete who lost his leg due to bone cancer and subsequently set out on the “Marathon of Hope” in 1980, running across Canada to […]
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This Day In History: March 16, 1926 On this day in history, 1926, Robert Goddard performed the first flight test of a liquid-fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. This gasoline and liquid oxygen fueled rocket burned for about 20 seconds before lifting off from the ground and subsequently rising to a height of 41 feet, reaching a top speed of 60 mph. […]
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Today I found out all snakes can swim. If you’re one of those people who are afraid to swim in lakes, rivers, and the like, here’s another reason for you to stay out of the water: all snakes can swim. Thus, all snakes are technically “water snakes”, even though only some are given that designation, usually due to their propensity […]
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This Day In History: March 13, 1962 On this day in history, 1962, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer, submitted a proposal to the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, developed by the Joint Chiefs and the Department of Defense, outlining plans to commit various acts of terrorism on U.S. soil and then to frame the […]
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Today I found out apple seeds contain cyanide. The seeds of apples, also known as “pips”, contain a sugar/cyanide compound called “amygdalin”, which turns into hydrogen cyanide when it is metabolized in your body. Hydrogen cyanide was one of the key ingredients to Zyklon B, the trade name of the pesticide used by the Nazis in their gas chambers. Other […]
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Today I found out there was once a one man invasion attempt of the island of Sark. Andre Gardes was an unemployed nuclear physicist from France. Mr. Gardes believed himself the rightful heir and “Seigneur” of the small formerly feudal state of Sark. In August of 1990, Gardes decided to stage an invasion to forcefully set himself up as the […]
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Today I found out the origin of the green, yellow, and red color scheme for traffic lights. While some of the specifics have been lost to history, it is known that this color scheme derives from a system used by the railroad industry since the 1830s. At this time, railroad companies developed a lighted means to let train engineers know […]
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Today I found out that it currently costs more than double what pennies and nickels are worth to produce them. In 2006, the U.S. Mint sent a letter to Congress informing them that for the first time in history, it cost more to produce a penny and nickel than the coins themselves were worth. Including materials, machinery, labor, shipping, and […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by frequent TIFO visitor and owner of Daily Random Facts, Jon. Today I found out Charlie Sheen once bought 2,615 tickets to a single Angels’ baseball game, hoping he’d be able to catch a home run ball. Charlie grew up with a love for acting and baseball. As with acting, Sheen started out […]
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Today I found out there is an octopus with a detachable penis. Known as the Argonaut, this male mollusc has a very sacrificial way of impregnating their female counterparts. The male has one arm longer than his others, known as a hectocotylus, which is used to transfer sperm to the female. The arm stores up the sperm, and when the […]
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Today I found out honey can be used for a variety of medicinal purposes. You may be skeptical about this because many such “natural” alternatives to medicine put forth are not backed by any scientific research. These types of claims are often based primarily on anecdotal evidence, which can be misleading. (I personally was extremely skeptical about honey’s medicinal value, […]
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Today I found out how baseball groundskeepers achieve checkerboard patterns in the ballpark grass. Most of us have had the opportunity to stand in awe as our eyes perceive the beauty of a perfectly mowed grass in a baseball stadium. Stripes, checkerboard style, or even artistic expressions add flair to a baseball field. But how exactly do they get these […]
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This Day In History: February 29, 1504 On this day in history, 1504, Christopher Columbus convinced a group of Native Jamaicans that his god was angry with them for ceasing to provide his group with supplies and that god would show his anger with a sign from the heavens. The sign was a lunar eclipse that Columbus knew was imminent. […]
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Today I found out squirrels can purr. In September 2010 a baby squirrel named Rocky fell out of his nest in Mississippi. The family who found poor Rocky decided that their nursing cat, Emmy, would be the perfect mother for the little rodent. Rocky quickly became one of the litter and began to purr along with the other kittens. This […]
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Today I found out the famous Star Trek line “…to boldly go where no one has gone before” is thought to have been inspired by a passage in a White House issued pamphlet on space. Specifically, it is thought to be from this passage in the pamphlet, “Introduction to Outer Space“: It is useful to distinguish among four factors which […]
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Today I found out split infinitives are not incorrect grammatically. As mentioned in the recent Star Trek “to boldy go” article (check that out here), the majority of modern English grammar guides list split infinitives as being perfectly acceptable. This has also been the case, not just in modern usage, but throughout most of the history of the English language […]
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Today I found out the origin of the term layman. The term layman has today come to mean “a person who does not belong to a particular profession or who is not expert in some field.” It also has a somewhat less commonly known meaning of “a person who is not a member of the clergy”, which is its original […]
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