TIL about the Pacification of Algeria, which took place between 1830 and 1875 and cost the lives of between 500 000 and 1 million Algerians, or about one third of the total Algerian population [source, comments]

TIL the 1997 game Redneck Rampage included a licensed soundtrack from Southern rock and rockabilly bands like Reverend Horton Heat and Mojo Nixon. It was one of the first PC games to use real regional music instead of generic background tracks. [source, comments]

TIL that spelling bees are (mostly) unique to the English language due to spelling irregularities [source, comments]

TIL despite its revolutionary CGI and a milestone in visual effects history, Tron wasn't a huge hit when it came out in summer 1982. It was even disqualified from the Best Special Effects category at Oscars, since the Academy felt that using computer animation was "cheating". [source, comments]

TIL Surgeons use F1 pitstop techniques to save the lives of newborn babies [source, comments]

TIL that John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, has been married to the same woman since before he murdered Lennon. He’s been allowed regular conjugal visits since 2014. [source, comments]

TIL that the 1976 F1 season was not broadcasted in the UK except for the final race in Japan, because Durex sponsored an F1 team, which BBC at the time considered "totally unacceptable for family viewing" [source, comments]

TIL about Oradour-sur-Glane, a village in France where the SS massacred its 642 inhabitants—men, women, and children. It stands today as a memorial to the victims [source, comments]

TIL that 20th Century Fox refused to promote Idiocracy upon its release, leading only to $500,000 grossed at the box office against a $2.4 million budget [source, comments]

TIL learned about Turkey Pete, a Montana prison inmate who grew so institutionalized that he began writing billions of dollars worth of checks on behalf of the prison and was eventually allowed to sleep in the Warden’s office even after his sentence ended. [source, comments]

TIL Brazil uses geese to guard their prisons [source, comments]

TIL that Mr. Brightside by the Killers, released in 2003, has spent a cumulative 478 weeks on the UK's Top 100. As of this writing, it's Number 61 on the singles chart. [source, comments]

TIL about Teniky, a set of mysterious stone ruins in a remote part of inland Madagascar, which recent research suggests was built by medieval Zoroastrian Iranian settlers [source, comments]

TIL 54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level [source, comments]

TIL in 2002 Kreskin convinced hundreds of Americans that there were going to be UFOs over Las Vegas. He later confirmed that "the sighting prediction was a total fabrication in order to prove people's susceptibility to suggestion post-9/11" [source, comments]

TIL a cesium atomic clock (the current SI standard for a second) drifts by a second in about 30 million years, while a strontium optical lattice clock drifts by only one second over 30 billion years. [source, comments]

TIL that a diary belonging to royal physician Lord Dawson of Penn was unearthed in 1986 and revealed that he secretly and deliberately euthanized George V. [source, comments]

TIL that Pink from "Dazed and Confused" and Quint from "Mallrats" were not played by the same person, but rather by separate twin brothers [source, comments]

TIL about Sporus, an Ancient Roman slave, who was castrated by the Emperor Nero because he resembled his dead wife. [source, comments]

TIL that William Shatner became a vocal advocate for climate action at the age of 90 years, after going to space in 2021. He felt a sense of mourning, stating "It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. " [source, comments]