With New Year’s resolutions up and rolling, many of us are bringing on gym memberships, improving language skills, taking up new hobbies, getting into self-care and mindfulness, spending more time with family members, and basically, trying hard to be a better version of ourselves.
Meanwhile, our mental muscle is often forgotten and just as we give our bodies nutrients, so do we need to feed our brains with good stuff. So please, dear readers, stop whatever you’re doing. This is an invitation to a workout for your brain cells.
Today, we have a heavyweight treat for them, a brand new collection of incredible Today I Learned facts that range from miscellaneous ones perfect for trivia and mind-bending ones that may totally change your perspective of things. Scroll down below, upvote your favorite facts and be sure to check out our previous posts with Today I Learned goodness here, here and here.
#1
TIL Queen Elizabeth II has reigned longer than her father, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather combined
Image credits: soratoumiga
#2
TIL: The inventor of shopping carts, Sylvan Goldman, had to hire “decoy shoppers” to wheel the carts around stores and demonstrate their convenience, due to not catching on initially.
Image credits: guinneakeets
#3
TIL In 1993 a French man driving a Citroen car in a remote area of the Moroccan desert had a breakdown and became stranded. To survive he tore down the car, built a motorcycle from the parts, and rode it back to civilization. When he arrived he was ticketed for operating an illegal vehicle.
Image credits: WhenTardigradesFly
#4
TIL a bridge in Ireland that was designed to swing open for ships couldn’t be opened for four years because someone lost the remote control
Image credits: Wrexis
#5
TIL dolphins sleep with one eye open. Because they have to periodically go up for air and also be aware of predators, they are able to rest only half of their brain at a time and stay always somewhat conscious.
Image credits: DesignersUniverse
#6
TIL outraged Egyptians had once lynched a Roman for killing a cat.
Image credits: Salsal_Azar
#7
TIL that according to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.
Image credits: USPO-222
#8
TIL that a middle school football coach in Oregon was fired for trying to take his team to Hooters to celebrate the end of the season.
Image credits: TedTheodoreMcfly
#9
TIL the movie Gremlins was so intense that it was responsible for the movie rating of PG-13.
Image credits: Doctathunder
#10
TIL In 1941, almost 10% of all recruits for the US military were rejected because they did not have 6 opposing teeth on their upper and lower jaws. US dental health was so poor before WWII that it was the leading cause of rejection.
Image credits: orbesomebodysfool
#11
TIL: Carrie, Stephen King’s first novel that launched his career, was rescued from the trash can after his wife Tabatha removed the crumpled up pages, read them and told her husband she wanted to know the rest of the story
Image credits: LimeSugar
#12
TIL Leonardo Da Vinci saved 13,000+ pages of notes and drawings on anatomy, physiology, engineering, mechanics, geometry, mathematics, bird flight, flying machines, botany, proportions, topology, weaponry, musical instruments, art, and more, all in mirrored shorthand written from right to left.
Image credits: wjbc
#13
TIL that octopuses have copper-based blood rather than iron-based blood…which makes their blood blue in color. (Incidentally, they also have three hearts to pump that blood.)
Image credits: Willie_Everlearn
#14
TIL about Project 100k, where LBJ and Sec of Def Robert MacNamara decided to lower the mental and medical standards to recruit more soldiers to fight in Vietnam. These soldiers died at ~3x the normal rate.
Image credits: _Tactleneck_
#15
TIL the British Hedgehog Preservation Society won a campaign in 2006 to force McDonalds to redesign their McFlurry cups due to hedgehogs repeatedly getting stuck in them and dying.
Image credits: fatboyslick
#16
TIL about Mary Ellen Pleasant, a black woman in the 1800s who amassed a fortune by eavesdropping on investors while working as a domestic
Image credits: ap0110
#17
TIL Middle aged men with resting heart rates of 80 beats or higher per minute are likely to die four to five years earlier than men with resting heart rates of 65 beats per minute or less.
Image credits: iKickdaBass
#18
TIL Keanu Reeves was offered the lead role in The Matrix after 5 leading actors in 1990s turned it down.
Image credits: bimmer012
#19
TIL in the mid 1890s, Mary Whiton Caulkins completed all requirements towards a PhD in Psychology, but Harvard University refused to award her that degree because she was a woman.
Image credits: 67demigod
#20
TIL About the “murder bottle”. Many Victorian mothers would use a self feeding bottle to give their babies milk instead of breastfeeding. These bottles were made of earthenware & glass & were incredibly hard to clean which caused severe bacteria build up & caused the deaths of thousands of babies.
Image credits: BambiKittens666
#21
TIL that in Norse mythology, Loki got pregnant by a horse, he would then later give birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipner which would become Odin’s horse
Image credits: Dan_The_PaniniMan
#22
TIL of a Danish Bog Army. Hundreds of 2000-year old warrior skeletons have resurfaced from a bog, suggesting a violet event occurred nearby.
Image credits: JBColter
#23
TIL of the Lodz Ghetto, where at one point 20000 ‘useless eaters’, mainly children under 10, were rounded up and taken away from their families to be exterminated. Many parents committed suicide.
#24
TIL Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein, was named Chairmain of the Iraqi Olympic Committee in 1984. Athletes who disappointed him were subject to torture and imprisonment
Image credits: szekeres81
#25
TIL of Adolf Hitler’s Madagascar Plan. The plan was to relocate all the Jews to Madagascar. This idea later was shelved in favor for the mass genocide of the population.
Image credits: ___And_Memes_For_All
#26
TIL about Ismail al-jazari wrote the “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices” where he described 50 mechanical devices along with instructions on creating them. He has been described as the father of robotics and modern day engineering.
#27
TIL The mongols had a superstition that said that spilling royal blood would lead to great disaster. So instead they had other creative ways of executing such people. Including sewing up your orifices, drown you in molten metal or have horses trample you.
#28
TIL that a modern highway now runs through the site of the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans held back a massive Persian army for three days. A statue of the Spartan leader, Leonidas, stands just a few feet from the road.
#29
TIL of the Sony rootkit scandal: In 2005, Sony shipped 22,000,000 CDs which, when inserted into a Windows computer, installed unn-removable and highly invasive malware. The software hid from the user, prevented all CDs from being copied, and sent listening history to Sony.
#30
TIL Guy Fieri invites Make-A-Wish families to every taping of ‘Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives’
#31
TIL that owls cannot move their eyes. This is because their eyes are not balls, but cylinders that are held in place by bones called sclerotic rings. This is also the reason that owls have evolved to be able to rotate their head 270 degrees left and right, and 90 degrees up and down.
#32
TIL : Kanye West’s mother, Donda, has a law named after her known as ‘Donda West law’ that requires patients to have a physical examination before cosmetic surgery. Donda West unfortunately passed away from heart problems one day after her surgery.
#33
TIL that Betty White holds the Guinness World Record for longest TV career by an entertainer, with credits spanning 80 years (1939 to 2019)
#34
TIL the Great cheese riot of 1766 was a reaction to inflated cheese prices. The mayor tried to restore order but was knocked down by a cheese. The military were called & shots were fired, killing one man. He’d been guarding his cheeses
#35
TIL the Russian Soyuz series of spacecraft has been in continual use with the same basic design for 55 years and 140 flights. It is widely considered the world’s safest, most cost-effective human spaceflight vehicle. At least one is always docked at the ISS at all times for use as an escape craft.
#36
TIL that in 1945, General George S Patton, upon the liberation of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany, forced 1,000 local citizens to tour the camp to witness firsthand the atrocities that had taken place within.
#37
TIL the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas was found less than four months ago, and was several thousands of years older than previously thought
#38
TIL about the diabolical ironclad beetle (Nosoderma diabolicum), a species of beetle which has one of the toughest exoskeletons of all insects, which lets it endure forces up to 39,000 times its body weight and makes it impossible to put a insect pin through without drilling a hole first
#39
TIL George Patton led a sabers-drawn charge against U.S. WWI veterans and their families who were seeking promised bonuses, known as the “Bonus Army”.
#40
TIL: Archaeologist Alexander Peev was executed by firing squad in 1943 on suspicion of sending a coded message to the Soviet Union. It was actually an ancient inscription he wanted Russian archaeologists to help him interpret. The text remains undeciphered.
#41
TIL Elton John stiffed the Pinball Hall of Fame after filming a video there in 2004. Owner Tim Arnold didn’t receive the promised $500 and concert tickets, and maintains an open challenge to wrestle Sir Elton.
#42
TIL there’s an 18% average mortality rate for catch and release fishing with the rate varying significantly between species
#43
TIL in order to rescue the kids out of the flooded Thailand cave in 2018, rescuers drugged the kids unconscious then cave dove the the unconscious kids over 1km underwater
#44
TIL that in 1670, against a judge’s instructions, a jury refused to find two men guilty. The judge held the jury in contempt; locked them up overnight without food, water or heat; and fined them. On appeal, the Chief Justice ruled that a jury could not be punished for returning the wrong verdict.
#45
TIL in the middle ages mainly blind people were hired as treadwheel operators on construction sites, as they would not be scared from the sheer drop sight below them. It is also considered one of the worst jobs in history, as the wheels often broke.
#46
TIL in the mid 1890s, Mary Whiton Caulkins completed all requirements towards a PhD in Psychology, but Harvard University refused to award her that degree because she was a woman.
#47
TIL English words of Hindi or Urdu origin include bandana, bangle, bungalow, cheetah, cushy, dinghy, juggernaut, jungle, khaki, loot, punch (the drink), pundit, pyjamas, shampoo, thug, and typhoon
#48
TIL the Golden Age of Piracy, between 1650s & 1730s happened because of: more valuable cargo being shipped over vast ocean areas; reduced European navies; & corrupt officials in overseas colonies.
#49
TIL of Titanic survivor Frankie Goldsmith. His father died during the sinking, and when he and his mother arrived in America they settled in Detroit near Navin Field (Tiger Stadium). He never attended a game due to the cheers of the crowd reminding him of the cries of the dying people in the water.
#50
TIL that the Indonesian Army nearly conducted an amphibious landing in Somalia in order to free the crew of an Indonesian cargo ship captured by pirates. The plan was never executed because the pirates were all killed by Indonesian Special Forces and the hostages freed before they made it to shore.
#51
TIL that showman P.T. Barnum got his start by purchasing an enslaved woman named Joice Heth. She was in her 70’s but he claimed she was 161 years old and had been the nanny of George Washington. He exhibited her until her death, and then allowed the public to view her autopsy for 50 cents each
#52
TIL that in Churchill, Canada, locals keep their car doors unlocked in order to provide other residents a quick escape, should they encounter a polar bear
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