TIL (Timeline I Learned)

TIL the playground equipment 'monkey bars' are misnamed and would be better named gibbon bars, as the arm-over-arm movement on them (brachiation) is not something monkeys can actually do. Gibbons are the only true brachiators, and humans are modified brachiators [Source, Comments]

TIL until 1933–when a deflated balloon caused an airplane to crash—the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons would be released into the sky where they’d eventually burst. [Source, Comments]

TIL Buddha is a Venerated as a Catholic Saint Under the Name St. Josaphat [Source, Comments]

TIL That the first flying car, the Convair Model 118, was made in the 1940's [Source, Comments]

TIL that mosquitoes are pollinators, all mosquitoes drink nectar from flowers, and females of many species have adapted to drink blood, and some of them require blood to develop their eggs. [Source, Comments]

TIL white skin evolved independently in European and East Asian populations through separate genetic mechanisms and distinct evolutionary timelines. [Source, Comments]

TIL that the Comedian (Watchmen) was a character derived from Peacemaker [Source, Comments]

TIL car manufacturers have dedicated teams that design sounds like seat belt chimes and warning alerts, even testing different sounds on drivers to determine how pleasant or annoying they are. [Source, Comments]

TIL that Toshiro Mifune, best known for samurai films he made with director Akira Kurosawa, was a Japanese Methodist Christian. Kurosawa helped convince his girlfriend's Buddhist parents to allow her a Christian marriage with Mifune. [Source, Comments]

TIL the 4th atomic bomb ever detonated had a picture of actress Rita Hayworth on it. Before the 1946 test Hayworth said she hoped her daughter could someday tell her own daughter that “grandmother’s picture was on the last atom bomb ever to explode.” [Source, Comments]

TIL that the first US Navy vessel to bear the famous name of Enterprise was named as such by Benedict Arnold [Source, Comments]

TIL that during the Great Depression the Federal Art Project paid artists to paint over 18,000 watercolors of everyday objects to preserve the "national, ancestral aesthetic" of America. [Source, Comments]

TIL There is a Hindu legend about an ancient warrior-king named Mandhatri who was born from his father’s left side after his father accidentally swallowed a fertility potion that the Brahmins had prepared for his wife, making him a child conceived and born entirely from a man, without a mother. [Source, Comments]

TIL President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, resisted giving two Dakotas statehood, believing both states would likely elect Republicans to Congress; but when Republican Benjamin Harrison was elected president and Republicans gained majorities in both houses of Congress, both Dakotas become states. [Source, Comments]

TIL that due to the Hays Code not permitting villains to go unpunished at the end of the film, the 1956 adaptation of "The Bad Seed" adds a scene where the villainous child is inexplicably struck by lightning. [Source, Comments]

TIL the second largest city in Greece, Thessaloniki, was named after a sister of Alexander the Great. The city was founded by her husband Cassander, who had Alexander's mother, wife, and son murdered. [Source, Comments]

TIL that a speed dating event in Japan used "techno-cupid" robots to conduct small talk for single participants while the couples sat in complete silence, allowing automated wingmen to brag about their users and reduce the anxiety of first impressions. [Source, Comments]

TIL that Mark Twain was a guitar player. He apparently never mentioned this in his public writing or speeches. He played on the same guitar all his life, one made in 1835, the year of his birth, and took it everywhere on his travels. He learned from his sister, who also taught him piano. [Source, Comments]

TIL That Van Halen split up as a direct result of their contribution to the Twister (1996) soundtrack. [Source, Comments]

TIL that during WWII, British spies stuffed dead rats with explosives to sabotage German factories. The first shipment was intercepted, but the discovery reportedly made German forces search for hundreds of imaginary rat bombs. [Source, Comments]