Today I Learned (TIL)

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TimelyConcern on 2024-12-18 18:15:37+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the music for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was taken from a cantata that was originally written by Felix Mendelssohn to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/bawledannephat on 2024-12-18 03:16:10+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Nietzsche-F on 2024-12-17 18:39:38+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/zahrul3 on 2024-12-17 15:23:45+00:00.

Original Title: TIL of the 2013 Cannes heist, in which a solo thief managed to break into a poorly guarded room and snatched a suitcase containing 72 pieces of jewellry worth $136 million from a billionaire about to do a private exhibition of his jewel collection.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TheAfternoonStandard on 2024-12-17 04:15:14+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/sheepish132 on 2024-12-18 02:39:16+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/cheezburglar on 2024-12-18 00:10:39+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Hamsternoir on 2024-12-17 14:56:53+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/CommentFamous503 on 2024-12-17 13:23:41+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the largest city in the ancient mediterranean was a Greek colony called Sybaris which held up to 300,000 inhabitants, the city was destroyed in 510 BC and was lost to history until its ruins were rediscovered in 1932.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/EpicAura99 on 2024-12-18 14:26:28+00:00.

Original Title: TIL after Georgia was re-admitted to the Union in 1868 following Reconstruction, pro-Confederate unrest prompted them to be expelled again in Dec. 1869 until Jan. 1870. This gives GA 3 admittance dates, the most of any state.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/TheSteelSword on 2024-12-18 13:58:53+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/GetYerHandOffMyPen15 on 2024-12-18 13:53:25+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that American founding father Aaron Burr was an early supporter of giving women education and the right to vote. He was also a notorious womanizer who frequented sex workers and fathered multiple children with many different mothers, including an Indian servant who worked in his house.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/charliewaffles2412 on 2024-12-18 13:00:39+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/richaver345 on 2024-12-17 11:54:35+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that In 1971, the crew of Apollo 15 left a tiny statue on the moon called Fallen Astronaut, alongside a plaque listing the names of 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died. It remains the only memorial to lost space explorers on the moon, silently honoring their sacrifice.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Ainsley-Sorsby on 2024-12-17 02:03:59+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/thefuzzybunny1 on 2024-12-18 02:03:36+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the lyrics to the song "Winter Wonderland" were written by Richard Bernhard Smith while he was hospitalized for tuberculosis treatment. He would die of the disease a year after the song was first recorded.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Ainsley-Sorsby on 2024-12-18 01:01:59+00:00.

Original Title: TIL After the battle of Sedan, over 100,000 French soldiers were captured, including Emperor Napoleon III himself, but he headed to a "comfortable captivity" while his soldiers were left starving in makeshift POW camps. On hearing the news, Napoleon's wife asked "why didn't he kill himself?"

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/ObjectiveAd6551 on 2024-12-17 23:53:28+00:00.

Original Title: TIL Robert Duvall turned down the role of Woodrow Call in Lonesome Dove to play Gus McCrae, calling it one of the best roles he’d ever seen. His performance was so memorable that fans sometimes weep when visiting Gus’s mannequin, taken from his coffin scene, now displayed at Texas State University.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/MrMojoFomo on 2024-12-17 22:04:25+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the idea that medieval castles had clockwise spiral staircases to make it hard for attackers is mostly unfounded. Not only did about 30% of medieval castles have counter-clockwise stairs, the earliest known reference for this claim comes from a book written in 1903, with no primary sources

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Johannes_P on 2024-12-16 09:58:08+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/wimpykidfan37 on 2024-12-17 03:51:18+00:00.

Original Title: Today I learned that the original version of "The Three Bears" didn't have a girl named Goldilocks visiting a family of bears, but rather an unnamed old woman visiting three adult male bears who happened to be different sizes.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/CaptainN_GameMaster on 2024-12-17 03:41:21+00:00.

Original Title: TIL of George Stathakis, who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel with his pet turtle. George survived the fall only for his barrel to get stuck, and he suffocated after 8 hours. His pet turtle, however, survived.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/pgh9fan on 2024-12-17 19:49:45+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/cuspofgreatness on 2024-12-17 19:46:29+00:00.

Original Title: TIL The Spanish were the first European settlers in the Florida Keys, and upon unearthing a burial mound on one of the southernmost keys, they named it Caya Hueso, Bone Island, a name later Anglicized into Key West. Spain officially relinquished control of Florida to the United States in 1821.

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/LesPolsfuss on 2024-12-17 18:15:22+00:00.

Original Title: TIL the 1966 song "River Deep – Mountain High" which was written by Phil Spector, cost a then unheard of $22,000 ($207,000 in 2023), and required 21 session musicians. It was reported that the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson attended the session, where he sat "transfixed" and "did not say a word."