Today I found out the difference between a coffin and a casket. The words coffin and casket are often used interchangeably to describe a box used to bury a dead body in. Although the general purpose of each is the same, there are small differences between the two. The term coffin has been used to describe a container that holds […]
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Clapton’s son, Conor, who he had with model and actress Lori del Santo while still married to Patti Boyd, died at the age of four years old after falling from a window in del Santo’s 53rd floor, New York City apartment. The window was a full wall window that had been removed by a janitor to let fresh air in […]
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Myth: Billy the Kid’s real name was William H. Bonney William H. Bonny is actually another alias of Billy the Kid, used during the height of his notoriety, but it is not generally considered his real name. Throughout his life, several different names were associated with this 19th century outlaw and gunman, including: William Henry McCarty, Jr. – Billy the […]
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Super Glue really is “super”. A one square inch bonding of Super Glue can hold around one ton. Super Glue has even been used to bond a small surface area of metal attached to a crane, which was then glued to the top of a car. The car was lifted successfully by the crane without the bond breaking. Sources and […]
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Koala “bears” aren’t a type of bear at all, as it turns out, and their non-scientific name doesn’t include “bear” on the end, as is commonly spoken outside of Australia by the English speaking world. They are simply “Koalas”. So if they aren’t a member of the family Ursidae (bears), what are they? In fact, they are marsupials, along with […]
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The first documented case of a hammerhead shark reproducing asexually happened on December 14, 2001 at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska where a female hammerhead shark, which was kept in isolation from males, miraculously gave birth to a pup. The pup was unfortunately killed by a stingray shortly thereafter, but testing showed that the pup was, in fact, a […]
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Today I found out It’s a Wonderful Life was based on a “Christmas Card” short story by Philip Van Doren Stern, which was originally sent out to around 200 of Stern’s friends and family in December of 1943. The short story was called The Greatest Gift and was inspired by a dream Stern had one night in the 1930s. Stern, […]
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This Day In History: December 23, 1823 On this day in history, 1823, the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known today as The Night Before Christmas or ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas was first published. The poem first appeared in the New York Sentinel with no author listed, having been delivered for publication by a friend of Clement […]
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Eeyore’s name is based off the British Cockney dialect version of the phrase “hee-haw”. Interestingly, the guy who did the voice for Optimus Prime also did the voice for Eeyore and was the first person to voice Nintendo’s Mario character. *the more you know* Sources and Further Reading
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The “Dr.” in “Dr. Seuss” was in homage to Theodore Geisel’s father’s hope that his son would get his PhD. Geisel instead dropped out of the PhD program at Oxford where he was pursuing a PhD in English. “Seuss” was his mother’s maiden name as well as his own middle name. Interestingly, he did eventually receive several honorary doctorates, more […]
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Today I found out that Conan O’Brien spent two years as a writer and producer of The Simpsons before replacing Letterman as the host of Late Night. After becoming burnt out working at Saturday Night Live, Conan quit and decided to do something else, though he had no idea what. When Mike Reiss and Al Jean from The Simpsons heard […]
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This Day In History: December 21, 1898 On this day in history, 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive element radium (in the form of radium chloride), extracting it from uraninite. They first removed the uranium from the uraninite sample and then found that the remaining matter was still radioactive, so investigated further. Along with the barium in the […]
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Researchers in Israel have successfully trained mice to be used as bomb and drug detectors. The mice are kept in containers and if the mice detect any explosives or drugs, they will trigger an alarm by pressing a button. Each mouse can work in four hour shifts and have proven to be more accurate than x-ray machines and dogs at […]
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Myth: “Xmas” is a non-religious name / spelling for “Christmas”. It turns out, “Xmas” is not a non-religious version of “Christmas”. The “X” is actually indicating the Greek letter “Chi”, which is short for the Greek, meaning “Christ”. So “Xmas” and “Christmas” are equivalent in every way except their lettering. In fact, although writing guides such as those issued by […]
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Misconception Junction will be merged with Today I Found Out over the next couple weeks. What this means is that all Misconception Junction’s articles will now be here on Today I Found Out and future “myths and misconception” articles will be posted on Today I Found Out, along with the normal “interesting fact”, This Day In History, etc. types of […]
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Donald Fauntleroy Duck was created in 1934. He was first thought up after Walt Disney overheard Clarence Nash doing his now famous duck voice for the first time. At the time, Nash was demonstrating a variety of voices he could do. Walt Disney decided to hire Nash to do the voice of a duck character that would take over the […]
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Embed This Infographic Source: Today I Found Out 1. What the “Bee” in “Spelling Bee” Means While no one knows exactly where the word derives from, the “bee” in “spelling bee” simply means something to the effect of “gathering” or “get together”. The earliest documented case of this word appearing with this meaning was in 1769, referring to a […]
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