TIL Sergei Federov, Alternate Captain of the Detroit Red Wings, dated 16 year old Anna Kournikova in 1996 after winning the Stanley Cup.
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/150z221/til_sergei_federov_alternate_captain_of_the/
TIL that in Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in a church.
https://www.al.com/news/2016/01/heres_the_dumbest_law_in_alaba.html
TIL that the Yellowstone Park "Zone of Death" is a legal loophole in a small part of Yellowstone Park. A man was tried for an elk's murder in the Idaho section. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a fair trial by a jury in the area, but no jury can be assembled as nobody lives there, making crimes legal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_Death_(Yellowstone)
TIL that during WWII, a dentist came up with 'Project X-Ray,' strapping incendiary bombs onto bats to start fires in Japanese cities. However, the plan failed due to difficulties in training the bats and lack of military funding. Development ceased in 1944.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/150yxgc/til_that_during_wwii_a_dentist_came_up_with/
TIL that The Philippines consists of 7,641 islands, about 2,000 of which are inhabited that form an archipelago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines
TIL thanks to tree rings, we know global cooling caused piracy.
TIL arguably one of the most pain labors in the animal kingdom is for a hyena. The have no opening for the vagina and give birth through a pseudo penis. That’s right, guys. Imagine giving birth through that thing….
https://africageographic.com/stories/good-bad-gory-birth-hyena-cub/
TIL that a popular asthma inhaler in the 1970s and 1980s was removed from sale in New Zealand in 1989 because its introduction and widespread use was associated with an epidemic of asthma deaths. The mortality rate declined following the withdrawal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenoterol
TIL Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield in 1881, survived two assassination attempts after he was apprehended. One shooter was his own prison guard, William Mason, who received an 8-year sentence. The other, farmer Bill Jones ("The Avenger"), was acquitted.
https://bygonebrookland.com/2017/06/09/bill-jones-the-avenger/
TIL that actor Gary Cooper turned down the role of Rhett Butler in the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind,” and said that the film "is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history". Today, “Gone with the Wind” is the highest grossing movie of all time, adjusted for inflation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Gable
TIL the famous grand staircase of the Titanic has no known photos; and that the pictures that depict it are actually of the RMS Olympic's grand staircase, as they are hypothesized to be similar.
TIL Yasushi Takahashi left behind his girlfriend for six months to wander across Japan to create an epic marriage proposal. Carrying a GPS, Yassan covered 7,163.7 km mostly by walking, but with some use of a car, ferry and bicycle.
Til that some woodpeckers will drink out of hummingbird feeders
https://travellingbirder.com/do-woodpeckers-drink-out-of-hummingbird-feeders/
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/150w37c/til_that_some_woodpeckers_will_drink_out_of/
TIL that despite the popular belief that SOS stands for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls", it actually doesn't stand for anything. SOS was developed because it was an easy sequence of letters to remember in Morse Code (three dots, three dashes, three dots).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS
TIL The water speed record has stood since 1978 at 464.46 km/h (288.6 mph), only 2 attempts have been made to beat it, both ending in fatality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_speed_record#1977_and_1978
TIL that the man commonly credited with inventing the sandwich was in charge of the Royal Navy during the American Revolution. His incompetent leadership was a factor in the American victory. It was said about him that "Seldom has any man held so many offices and accomplished so little."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Sandwich
TIL That spotting a “Masked Hunter” bug is almost always a sign that you have bedbugs!
https://uwm.edu/field-station/masked-hunter/
TIL of Paul Douglas, who earned a PHD from Columbia, became a Chicago city councilman and then joined the Marines as a private in 1942 at age 50. He saw combat, waswounded and later became a Senator from Illinois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Douglas
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/150tt4a/til_of_paul_douglas_who_earned_a_phd_from/
TIL The Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 was called Obakemono (a shape shifting monster) in Japan and Godzilla-on-wheels in Australia.
https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/how-godzilla-got-its-name-wheels-magazine-july-1989
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/150tq39/til_the_nissan_skyline_gtr_r32_was_called/
TIL that the highest temperature ever recorded in Hawaii was 100 °F (38 °C), tied with Alaska for the lowest of any US state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii
