TIL that airplane Wi-Fi works by connecting to satellites orbiting Earth, not cell towers on the ground meaning you’re literally streaming memes from space while flying at 35,000 feet [source, comments]

TIL that the entire text of the novel Don Quixote decorates the walls of the line 3 platform of Madrid’s Plaza de España metro station, so riders could conceivably read the entire novel off the platform walls while they wait. [source, comments]

TIL in 1987, the residents of the atoll island of Faaite in French Polynesia were gripped by mass hysteria brought on by Tahitian cultists who had taken control of the local church leadership and spread rumors of demon possession which culminated in six locals being burned alive on a bonfire. [source, comments]

TIL About 30% of people are natural “night owls,” genetically predisposed to peak later in the day. [source, comments]

TIL the 2001 World Series was the first to end in November, due to the week-long delay in the regular season after the September 11 attacks. Game 4 had begun on October 31 but went into extra innings and ended early on the morning of November 1, the first time the Series had been played in November. [source, comments]

TIL that the Borg in Star Trek originally had no leader. The Borg Queen was added in First Contact (1996) for storytelling reasons. The writers thought audiences needed a single villain rather than a faceless hive mind. [source, comments]

TIL when Marco Polo returned to Venice from his travels, the locals mocked him for constantly boasting about Asia’s vast riches. They nicknamed him “Mr. Marco Millions” (Messer Marco Milioni). [source, comments]

TIL that in 2000, to prevent peanut allergies, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended children zero to three years old to avoid them, which backfired, and caused peanut allergy cases to grow dramatically. [source, comments]

TIL in 2011, the de-radicalization group EXIT Deutschland posed as skinheads a white power music festival, handing out t-shirts that a contained hidden message which was only revealed after being washed: "What happened to your shirt can happen to you. We can help you break with right-wing extremism. [source, comments]

TIL that Franklin W. Dixon the author of The Hardy Boys novels isn’t an actual person but rather the pen name of a team of writers. [source, comments]

TIL the Nobel Prizes aren’t paid from Alfred Nobel’s original fortune but from its investment returns. His 1895 bequest of 31M SEK has grown nearly 200-fold to over 6B SEK, funding all prizes, medals, and admin costs - 136M SEK in 2024 - indefinitely. [source, comments]

TIL of Joseph Trombino, a security guard who nearly had his arm severed by bullets during the infamous 1981 Brink’s Robbery. He survived and continued to work for Brink’s for over 20 years, surviving the 1993 WTC bombing as well, before being killed while making a delivery during the 9/11 attacks [source, comments]

TIL in 1872, Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president. And she listed Frederick Douglass as her running mate without telling him. [source, comments]

TIL that several filmmakers documented the construction of the Gateway Arch in hopes that the legs wouldn’t meet. To insert the keystone, firehoses had to cool the arch due to thermal expansion and the legs had to be hydraulically jacked apart. [source, comments]

TIL of Bar Convent, a secret catholic covenant and one of the first schools for girls in England; during renovations it had a dome built that cannot be seen from the outside and 8 escape routes in the chapel to avoid worshipers being arrested. [source, comments]

TIL that of the 400,000+ graves at Arlington National Cemetery, only one is not under the Army's direction. Specialist RL McKinley died in a reactor accident with his remains to only be disturbed by permission of the Atomic Energy Commission as he is considered contaminated. [source, comments]

TIL that sushi was originally street food in Japan, but after the 1923 Kanto Earthquake, it moved indoors. The earthquake caused land prices to drop and indoor sushi restaurants(sushi-ya in Japanese) popped up. By the 1950s, the practice became common. [source, comments]

TIL - Natural gas is odorless, gas companies are required by federal law to add a chemical called mercaptan to give it a distinctive rotten egg or sulfur smell to help detect leaks [source, comments]

TIL: About 30% of people are naturally "night owls," a preference known as a chronotype, which is largely genetic and is not due to a lack of discipline. Forcing a night owl to adhere to an early schedule can lead to chronic sleep deprivation and associated health problems. [source, comments]

TIL about Galaxy Filaments, the largest known structures in the universe. Consisting of walls of galactic superclusters, these massive, thread-like formations can commonly reach 50 to 80 megaparsecs (160 to 260 megalight-years) in size. [source, comments]