TIL (Timeline I Learned)

TIL that plans had originally proposed that Sesame Street’s Big Bird, and his actor Caroll Spinney were to be part of the crew on the doomed Challenger Space Shuttle [Source, Comments]

TIL French impostor Frédéric Bourdin convinced a Texas family he was their missing 13 year old son. Bourdin bleached his hair, got a matching tattoo and concocted a story he was human trafficked. Despite having different eye color, a French accent and being 23. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. [Source, Comments]

TIL that despite being the mascot of the Klondike Bar, polar bears do not actually inhabit the Klondike region of the Yukon. [Source, Comments]

TIL real Somali pirate from Captain Phillips is sentenced to 33 years in US prison [Source, Comments]

TIL in 2013 a Columbian man with HIV was admitted to the hospital with an aggressive malignant cancer that was not human and from a small tape worm. He died 72 hours later. [Source, Comments]

TIL that in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spider-Man was not allowed to punch anyone. Producer John Semper Jr. claimed that it was his idea, as he didn't want to teach children to "solve problems through simple violence", and belived that Spider-Man should use more tactical methods. [Source, Comments]

TIL that in 2004, Reason Magazine sent out their June magazine issue with personalized covers to each one of their 40,000 subscribers. The personalized cover was a satellite image photo of their house. [Source, Comments]

TIL from 1994 to 2002, there was a strange art installation in Portland, Oregon called the "24 Hour Church of Elvis" containing assorted 70s pop culture memorabilia. The "church" would perform real, legal marriages for $25, as well as "cheap, not legal" marriages for $5. [Source, Comments]

TIL among all active US physicians, only 0.75% of them, or 1 for every 133, are plastic surgeons. There are only 7,719 plastic surgeons among 1,032,365 active US physicians. [Source, Comments]

TIL In Bali they fill party balloons with Hydrogen instead of Helium [Source, Comments]

TIL there are over a half billion tea drinkers in China who consume an average of 3.5 pounds of tea per year, and the value of "all the tea in China" passed one trillion yuan in 2023 [Source, Comments]

TIL In 1985 Audi installed a prototype Porsche PDK transmission in the S1 and achieved 0-60mph in 2.6s on gravel. [Source, Comments]

TIL Grad student David Radies was doing random sampling for a lichen diversity study in British Columbia when he saw logging tape tied around a red cedar at least two thousand years old. He discovered an ancient forest that was about to be logged, which was then saved as Ancient Forest park [Source, Comments]

TIL In 2020, a pregnant Walgreens employee with diabetes and hypoglycemia wasn't allowed to take emergency leave to seek medical attention, forcing her to resign. She had a miscarriage later that day. In 2024, Walgreens agreed to pay $205,000 to settle a federal EEOC lawsuit. [Source, Comments]

TIL that in 2023, a Montana ski patrol reported that a mountain goat started a 1,000' avalanche, road the avalanche all the way down, and walked away without apparent injury. [Source, Comments]

TIL about the toast sandwich, an English sandwich made with two slices of bread in which the filling is toasted bread [Source, Comments]

TIL that after the disastrous Battle of Midway, Japanese Naval high command not only kept the true result hidden from the public, but also from the Army and most of the Navy. Only Emperor Hirohito and the highest Navy command staff were accurately informed of the carrier and personnel losses. [Source, Comments]

TIL that last year the last remaining Shaker community gained its 3rd member. The Shakers was a Christian sect founded in the late 18th century with a peak membership of upward to 4,000. One of their main practices is celibacy, which made new memberships difficult. [Source, Comments]

TIL trumpets in Bach’s time had no valves - players changed notes purely with their lips and breath, using the instrument’s natural harmonic series. [Source, Comments]

TIL the Jury on the OJ Simpson trial were sequestered for 265 days. Additionally, it involved involved extreme isolation and constant supervision. [Source, Comments]