TIL in 2014, Bell had a $2.80 Touch-Tone service fee for landline customers that was voted as "Canada's dumbest charge"
TIL in 1951, 600 British soldiers were getting overwhelmed by 30,000 Chinese soldiers. Brig Tom Brodie told his American Superior "Things are a bit sticky, sir." Because of the understatement, the General assumed they were holding up and sent no help. Almost all the soldiers were captured or killed.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/14/johnezard
TIL of Steganography, a field similar to cryptography, but that involves concealing a message rather than encoding it. For example, hiding an image in audio, or even hiding one image in the data of another. A famous example, a POW in Vietnam blinked TORTURE in morse code during a newscast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/165gs8y/til_of_steganography_a_field_similar_to/
TIL When Usain Bolt won the 100m sprint in the Olympic final, he only ate chicken nuggets from McDonalds as he didn't want to risk getting an upset stomach from the local cuisine
https://soccerknows.com/the-secret-behind-usain-bolts-beijing-olympics-diet/
TIL of the Olympic Salute. Formerly a tradition at the events, it consisted of the right arm being raised at an angle. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, many interpreted athletes doing the salute as supporting the Nazi government due to its similarity to the Nazi salute. It was retired after WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols#Olympic_salute
TIL that in 1977, European TV airwaves were taken over by an “alien” force, known as Vrillon, of the Ashtar Galactic Command, which delivered a psychedelic message of inner truth and peace. The incident has never been explained.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Television_broadcast_interruption
TIL Celine Dion’s song It’s All Coming Back To Me Now was originally performed by a group called Pandora’s Box. They only had one album, and included vocals by the actress who played public defender Billie Young in Night Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_All_Coming_Back_to_Me_Now
TIL that Jesus loves us all SOOO MUCH and that He died on the cross for our sins because God is perfect and we are not. WE cannot atone for our sins on our own, so that's why Jesus who is PERFECT chose to die for us. Not only out of obedience, but LOVE <3 MY Life is forever changed!
https://www.desiringgod.org/topics/the-gospel
TIL there’s a species of jellyfish that can reverse their age once reaching adulthood
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/immortal-jellyfish-secret-to-cheating-death.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/165ebar/til_theres_a_species_of_jellyfish_that_can/
TIL Calico cats are almost always female, but a male calico with a rare chimerism condition was banned from cat shows
TIL about Berit Lindholm. Berit has performed at the Royal Opera House in London. She is considered one of the greatest Wagner singers of her generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berit_Lindholm
TIL that Ms Kitty Dalton was doxed by a newspaper for turning down over 200 marriage proposals, writing "the belt of Miss Kitty Dalton hang the scalps of more than two hundred U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines"
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92053934/1919-08-27/ed-1/seq-1/
TIL that Alec Guinness was initially offered $150,000 to play Obi-Wanin Star Wars but only accepted when that amount was doubled and another 2% of the backend grosses was added to it. This earned him an estimated $95 million by the time of his death in 2000 at 86.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/alec-guinness-star-wars-obi-wan-1235152814/
TIL Abraham Lincoln had already seen the play “Our American Cousin” and did not like it. He went at the insistence of his wife stating, "All right, Mary, I'll go; but if I don't go down in history as the martyr President, I miss my guess."
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-23-vw-30-story.html
TIL about the Gulf rupee, which was issued by the Government of India and was equivalent to the Indian rupee. Between 1956 and 1966, it was the official currency used in areas that today form the countries of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_rupee
TIL In Addition to the Well-Known Reading Disorders, There Are Also Writing Disorders
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23294-dysgraphia
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/162vpfo/til_in_addition_to_the_wellknown_reading/
TIL Queen performed in apartheid South Africa in 1984, despite fan backlash and the United Nations’ cultural boycott of the country. They were fined by the British Musicians Union and blacklisted by the UN as a result.
TIL Bram stoker's notes for Dracula contain little research into Vlad the Impaler. Much of the modern relation to Vlad the Impaler rely on Raymond McNally's 1972 book, In Search of Dracula. Dracula may have been more based on the repeatedly killed Abhartach of Irish folklore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhartach
TIL Chinese Architect I.M. Pei designed the Louvre Pyramid. At first, the glass structure recieved heavy criticism and was called 'An Architectural Joke'. Today it is one of France's most iconic destinations.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/architecture/louvre-pyramid.htm
