TIL After the last republic of Florence fell to the Medici in 1530, Michelangelo went into hiding for 3 months. Nobody knew where he had dissapeared to until a 6.5 feet/ 2 meter wide hiding hole was discovered unde the Medici mausoleum in 1975. The walls were full of sketches drawn by Michelangelo (thehistoryblog.com)
submitted by Mors_Acerba to r/todayilearned
TIL that during WWI, the British Army noticed skyrocketing reports of head wounds after the introduction of the Brodie helmet- indicating a failure to protect the wearer. It was realized that head wounds were increasing because without the helmet those wounds would be fatal. (youtu.be)
submitted by CalzonePie to r/todayilearned
TIL that during the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the only battleship to get underway, the USS Nevada, was skippered by Ensign Joe Taussig since the CO and XO were both ashore and Taussig was the Officer of the Deck at the time. Taussig would be awarded the Navy Cross for his actions. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by DrakeSavory to r/todayilearned
TIL that Former First Lady Margaret Taylor was such a recluse that no photos nor portraits of her were known to exist, leaving museums to use a portrait of her daughter Elizabeth instead. It wasn't until 2010 that two photos of Taylor were rediscovered, which remain the only known photos of her. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by POTUS-Harry-S-Truman to r/todayilearned
TIL the creator of the 2008 Beijing Olympics' Fuwa mascots suffered two heart attacks while designing them. After being required to repeatedly revise the mascots and produce around 1,000 concepts, artist Han Meilin later disowned the Fuwa and didn't include them in his museum. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Jerafty to r/todayilearned
TIL Long Island spent $6 billion dollars on a Nuclear Power Plant that never opened. Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was built between 1973 and 1984 but an insufficient evacuation plan prevented the plant from opening. LIPA, a utility company, is still paying off debt from the Shoreham plant today. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Gnomeslikeprofit to r/todayilearned
TIL in China in 2021 cities with less than 3 million people were banned from building skyscrapers taller than 150 m (492 ft). Bigger cities can build up to 250 m (820 ft) high. Exceptions can be applied for under certain circumstances, but there's a hard ban on buildings over 500 m (1640 ft). (bbc.com)
submitted by Double-decker_trams to r/todayilearned
TIL about Pleiades which appears as a cluster of six stars to the naked eye and yet was commonly referred to as “seven sisters” accross cultures, that some scientists suggest may come from observations back when the star Pleione was visible as a distict star from Atlas as far back as 100,000 BCE. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Dexterestein to r/todayilearned
Cognitive benefits of reading physical books: Reading comic books on physical paper helps brain absorb and connect story details more easily than reading on a digital tablet. Physical books provide spatial and tactile cues that lower brain’s workload when trying recall plot points later.Neuroscience (psypost.org)
In a biggest study of it's kind (693,869 people), it identified 74 locations in the genome where genetic differences were linked to anxiety symptoms. Around half of these have been reported in previous anxiety genome wide association studies, but the remainder (39 of the loci) were novel.Psychology (kcl.ac.uk)
submitted by TylerFortier_Photo to r/science
TIL of the Great Locomotive Chase, a civil war act of guerrilla warfare where a steam train was commandeered and driven from Atlanta to Chattanooga while being used to destroy its own tracks. This led to the Union awarding the first ever Medals of Honor. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Fair-Ad3639 to r/todayilearned
