With over 28.6 million members, this Reddit community is not your regular subreddit. Rather, it’s the internet’s beloved powerhouse that celebrates knowledge, curiosity, and intelligence.
By sharing something new to learn every single day, if not hour, Today I Learned has gained a following that keeps Reddit alive and gives our daily browsing the added value we crave.
So this time, we wrapped up a new batch of intriguing tidbits, surprising facts, and little-known bits of history to pour some brain stimuli into our feeds. Pull your seats closer, get your notebooks ready, and enjoy the TIL world right below!
Psst! More of TIL goodness awaits in our previous posts here, here, and here.
#1
TIL Ronald Reagan started eating Jelly Belly’s to quit smoking and kept it up so much that during his terms as President he would have more than 300 thousand jelly beans shipped to the White House each month
Image credits: immaownyou
#2
TIL during a preview of the Sistine Chapel paintings, one of the Pope’s men criticized all the “disgraceful” nudity. So Michaelangelo painted the critic’s likeness into the Last Judgement, wearing nothing but a snake that’s biting his d**k.
Image credits: Pfeffer_Prinz
#3
TIL in 2013 in Florida, a sink hole unexpectedly opened up beneath a sleeping man’s bedroom and swallowed him whole. He is presumed dead.
Image credits: RedditPowerUser01
#4
TIL that 65% of cancer survivors surveyed by ‘war on cancer’ said that they had been ghosted by friends or family after their diagnosis.
Image credits: Murphyitsnotyou
#5
TIL Tasmanian Devils bear up to 50 babies, but only have four nipples. The first four babies that successfully make it from the birth canal into the pouch stand a chance of surviving, while the rest die and are eaten by the mother.
Image credits: thejamescullen
#6
TIL that maggot therapy is an FDA approved treatment option for ulcers and wounds to promote healing. Live maggots are placed at the site of injury and eat the necrotic tissue, while also secreting anti-microbial chemicals.
Image credits: turk_a_lurk
#7
TIL Rip was a stray dog adopted by an Air Raid Patrol in WW2. Although not trained for rescue work, he sniffed out over 100 victims trapped beneath buildings. He was awarded the Dickin medal for his work, which has been held partially responsible for prompting the training of search and rescue dogs.
Image credits: HoneyGlazedBadger
#8
TIL that in New Jersey, it is illegal for criminals to wear a bulletproof vest while committing a crime
Image credits: sheggysheggy
#9
TIL Patricia Stallings was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her infant son under suspicion of antifreeze poisoning before being released due to a biochemist finding that her son had methylmalonic acidemia after hearing about her case on the television series, Unsolved Mysteries.
Image credits: 90PercentCoffee
#10
TIL the 1993 Chinese film, “An Old Man and his Dog” was banned in its native country for decades due to the discovery that the dog trainer and body double to the lead actor was a serial killer who fed his victims to dogs, including the ones onscreen.
Image credits: lsaille1
#11
TIL That the skeletons in the pool scene in Poltergeist were real human skeletons.
Image credits: ahydell
#12
TIL after tigers escaped from a zoo in Georgia and killed a man, advice was issued on what to do if you meet a tiger, including: don’t approach it, don’t run away, and don’t urinate
Image credits: pufballcat
#13
TIL that after constantly eat raw beef over a couple of years, a man in China eventually had a 20 foot long tapeworm living in his small intestine, and it turned out that the tapeworm had been inside his small intestines for at least 2 years.
Image credits: Imaginary_Emu3462
#14
TIL of the museum infested with the Chilean Recluse spider (Loxosceles laeta), widely considered to be the most venomous of its kind. The museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, is located in Helsinki & no one is sure how the spider, native to South & Central America, came into the museum.
Image credits: bdrumzzz
#15
TIL Quaternary Twins are when two babies are both cousins and genetically siblings. This happens when two identical sisters have children with two identical brothers.
Image credits: Convillious
#16
TIL the New Zealand army helped in making the LOTR films by filling as Soldiers and Orcs
Image credits: Proud-Equipment3816
#17
Til wolverine was created because Marvel’s then editor in chief Roy Thomas wanted a Canadian hero to boost north-of-the-border sales
Image credits: JOMO_Kenyatta
#18
TIL the SEC pays 10-30% of the fine to whistleblowers whose info leads to over $1m fines
Image credits: fap_fap_fap_fapper
#19
TIL Queen guitarist Brian May uses banjo strings on his electric guitars. Banjo strings are much lighter (thinner) and can bend much easier, making that signature Queen sound.
Image credits: Status-Victory
#20
TIL that urine comes from your blood, not directly from your digestive system.
Image credits: FutureSkeIeton
#21
TIL: Steve Jobs offered Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux a job at Apple under the condition he stopped developing for Linux. He declined the job offer.
Image credits: EngineerMinded
#22
TIL that in 1933, yo-yos were banned in Syria, because many locals superstitiously blamed the use of them for a severe drought.
Image credits: slinkslowdown
#23
TIL your belly button depth isn’t determined by the cut at birth, but just randomly how your stump heals.
Image credits: Mojobaby817
#24
TIL that scientists trying to study birds in Australia fitted them with tracking harnesses, and the birds helped each other take the harnesses off.
Image credits: MalC123
#25
TIL before Shazam was an app, it was a telephone service which you could call to identify a song. The caller would then get a text message with the song details.
Image credits: wilymon
#26
TIL about the 1936 presidential election in which Roosevelt received 98.49% of the electoral vote total, which remains the highest percentage of the electoral vote won by any candidate since 1820.
Image credits: o_ahu
#27
TIL that in 2013 a climber found a box full of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds on a remote glacier on Mont Blanc. Authorities determined they were likely from an Indian plane that crashed there in 1966 and gave the climber half the gems (worth $169,000) to reward his honesty in turning them in.
Image credits: a2soup
#28
TIL that Ben Franklin’s invention of the lightning rod was blamed by church leaders for the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake off the coast of Colonial Massachusetts — as his “heretical rods” interfered with the “artillery of Heaven” & deprived God of using lightning as “tokens of His displeasure.”
Image credits: zombieinferno
#29
TIL Matthew McConaughey was first assigned to play Marty Hart in the first season of True Detective. McConaughey asked to switch to Rust Cohle due to the character’s obsessive tendencies. McConaughey created a 450-page analysis of Cohle to study the character’s evolution in the series.
Image credits: sexpressed
#30
TIL the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster was Valery Khodemchuk who died as the reactor exploded, his body was never found and is entombed in the wreckage of the Chernobyl power plant
#31
TIL of ‘Denny’, the only known individual whose parents were two different species of human. She lived ninety thousand years ago in central Asia, where a fragment of her bone was found in 2012. Her mother was a Neanderthal and her father was a Denisovan.
#32
TIL that the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft has a replica of Nábrók (or necropants), a pair of pants made from the skin of a dead man or woman, which are believed in Icelandic witchcraft to be capable of producing an endless supply of money.
#33
TIL that David Blaine has over the course of a decade been buried alive for 7 days, encased in ice for 64 hrs, stood on 100ft high pillar for 35 hrs, survived only on water for 44 days and spent 7 days submerged underwater water
#34
TIL in 1972, diver Bret Gilliam survived a 325+ ft ascent, with an empty oxygen tank, after trying to save a colleague from attacking sharks.
#35
TIL James Salisbury, inventor of the Salisbury steak, was a physician during the American Civil War. He was convinced that vegetables were responsible for heart disease and mental illness, and that Salisbury steak should be eaten three times a day for bodily defense and weight loss.
#36
TIL that in Laguna, Brazil, bottlenose dolphins actively herd fish towards local fishermen and then signal with tail slaps for the fishermen to throw their nets. This collaboration has been occurring since at least 1847.
#37
TIL in 2018, a 34-year-old man blew a hole in his throat by holding his nose and closing his mouth while sneezing. The expulsion of air from a sneeze can propel mucous droplets at a rate of 100 mph. He was given antibiotics and put on a feeding tube for 7 days and recovered with no permanent damage.
#38
TIL that there’s a medical procedure called “Fecal Transplant” that literally consists in collecting feces, also called stool or poop, from a healthy donor and introduce them into a patient’s gastrointestinal tract. The procedure can control an infection called Clostridium difficile.
#39
TIL a “Chernobyl necklace” is a horizontal scar at the base of the throat from surgery to remove thyroid cancer caused by fallout from a nuclear accident
#40
TIL: Researchers in Botswana ran an experiment to reduce lion attacks in cows. They painted large eyes on the cow backsides. After several years, they showed fewer (zero) attacks on the eye-butt cows vs unpainted cows (15).
#41
TIL that during World War One up to 12 million letters a week were delivered to soldiers, many on the front line
#42
TIL there is an egg-shaped dwarf planet called Haumea in our Solar System – its shape its due to incredibly fast rotation and it even has two moons.
#43
TIL cheese has morphine-like compound named casomorphin
#44
TIL that Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history. An average of 55 bombs dropped per minute over 9 years.
#45
TIL of Puppy Pregnancy Syndrome, a psychosomatic illness found only in parts of India, where individuals who have been bitten by a dog believe that a puppy is conceived in their abdomen. Sufferers often report seeing the puppy in their reflection, or hearing it growl in their belly.
#46
TIL that there’s something called the “preparedness paradox.” Preparation for a danger (an epidemic, natural disaster, etc.) can keep people from being harmed by that danger. Since people didn’t see negative consequences from the danger, they wrongly conclude that the danger wasn’t bad to start with
#47
TIL about Major Wilbert “Doug” Peterson, who managed to perform the first and only air-to-space kill in history when he shot down a satellite with a F-15A fighter jet on September 13, 1985.
#48
TIL House Termites did make it over to England, but a 27 year government funded programme eradicated them in 2021.
#49
TIL Ireland limits taxation on writers, artist, composers, painters, etc. for their contribution to culture
#50
Today I learned that in Central Europe there are hunger stones (hungerstein), in river beds stones were marked with an inscription, visible only when the flow was low enough to warn of a drought that would cause famine.
#51
TIL during the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein built a defensive line filled with trenches and tunnels, hoping to engage the coalition in World War 1-style trench warfare. Instead, the US forces just charged with modified bullzdozers and simply plowed through the Iraqi trenches, burying many alive
#52
TIL actor Matt Doherty, who played Les Averman in the Mighty Ducks films, didn’t know how to skate or play hockey at all when he was cast in the first movie. By the time they shot the 3rd movie, he was captain of his high school hockey team and had been offered a scholarship to play in college.
#53
TIL Production on ALF was tense. The set was elevated and full of trap doors constantly being reset. Due to technical issues the 30 minute show took 20 to 25 hours to shoot. One especially stressful day Max Wright attacked ALF and the two had to be separated.
#54
TIL Socrates wrote nothing. All that is known about him has been inferred from accounts by members of his circle—primarily Plato and Xenophon—as well as by Plato’s student Aristotle, who acquired his knowledge of Socrates through his teacher.
#55
TIL that there are only 20 ancient lakes (defined as carrying water for more than a million years) in the world, with only 3 in North America (Tahoe, Tule, Pingualuk). Nearly all are tectonic (i.e. rift zones) in origin, however 2 are from meteorite craters (Pingualuk in Canada, Bosumtwi in Ghana)
#56
TIL that during a battle with American troops led by Gen. Custer, Chief Sitting Bull moved within rifle range, methodically filled his pipe, encouraged others to join him, slowly smoked as bullets flew by, and returned unscathed as a display of contempt and courage.
#57
TIL: Spartans magistrates would declare war on their slaves every year so they were free to harm or kill them.
#58
TIL It took 20,000 hours of underwater repairs but the United States managed to refloat a majority of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor. Recovered ships including the USS West Virginia, USS California, USS Tennessee, USS Maryland, and USS Pennsylvania all fought in the Philippines.
#59
TIL that the popularity of “Doer” names for Boys – like Racer, Trooper, Charger, Wrangler, etc. – rose by 1000% between 1980 and 2000, and has since largely stabilized at around 50,000 “Doer” named Boys per year.
#60
TIL that using recycled glass to make new glass requires 40% less energy than making it from all new materials. It saves energy because crushed glass melts at a lower temp than the raw materials. Glass is sometimes recycled into “glassphault” or is used as a landfill covering over waste materials.
#61
TIL that scenes for Gladiator, Band of Brothers, Children of Men, Thor and Coldplay’s The Scientist were all filmed in the same woodland in Surrey
#62
TIL: Until 2013, foreign chefs in Japan were legally barred from working in restaurants specializing in traditional Japanese food and could only serve foreign cuisine. Japan changed its regulations for foreign chefs after traditional Japanese cuisine won UNESCO designation.
#63
TIL of Carrie Nation, a woman who fought against the widespread alcohol consumption in the US before the prohibition by attacking saloons with a hatchet
#64
TIL that the video for Weird Al’s “Smells like Nirvana” was shot in the same sound stage as the clip for Smells like teen spirit and also used most of the extras from the original, including the janitor that’s featured in various scenes.
#65
TIL Vertus Hardiman, who at age 5 in 1928 was subject to radiation experiments disguised as a new ringworm treatment. He lived 80 years suffering necrosis of his skull, hidden under hats and wigs.
#66
TIL that Major League Baseball pitcher Ed Porray is the only player in league history to not be born in a country. He was born on a fishing boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on December 5th, 1888. His birth certificate lists “At sea, on the Atlantic Ocean” as his birthplace.
#67
TIL Armie Hammer’s great grandfather Armand Hammer tried to buy Arm & Hammer because was tired of being asked about it
#68
TIL that in addition to using the stars, Micronesians navigated the Pacific by recognizing and interpreting different type of ocean swells, even using them to pinpoint the existence of islands hundreds of miles away. Marshallese islanders additionally made stick maps of these ocean swell patterns.
#69
TIL the woman who created the green bean casserole is in the Inventor’s Hall of Fame
#70
TIL that Albert Göring, Hermann Göring’s Brother, was opposed to Nazism, and helped Jews and others who were persecuted escape Nazi Germany. He died in 1966 never having received recognition for his actions.
#71
TIL that everyone with a prostate has a structure called Vagina Masculina (aka Prostatic utricle), homologous to the female vagina.
#72
TIL in 1994, the family of 13-year-old Chris Kirkland made a bet that one day their son would play for Team England, with a bookie giving them 100-1 odds. The bet paid off in 2006, when the goalkeeper played for England in a match against Greece, with the family making £10,000
#73
TIL the “official” death of President Zachary Taylor was an overconsumption of cherries and milk, but the cause of death has been the subject of conspiracy theories.
#74
TIL about Project Possible, Nimsdai Purja climbed the 14 mountains that are above 8,000 meters in just Six months.They told Nims his project was simply impossible. So he called it Project Possible. While climbing Kanchenjunga he was partying the night before and was hungover during the climb.
#75
TIL that scientists managed to virtually reconstruct the destroyed planetary system of the star WD 1145+017 by analysing the debris field around the star. Giving birth to the field of astronomy dedicated to studying destroyed planets known as Necroplanetology.
#76
TIL that the visual effects of the film, The Fountain, cost only a total of $140,000 on a budget of $35 million due to macro photographer Peter Parks’ creative solutions and a bare minimum of CGI.
#77
TIL that due to ADA standards, elevators going up ding once and elevators going down ding twice to help those with disabilities
#78
TIL in 2004 Volvo introduced a concept car that was built for women without a hood and dent-resistant bumpers
#79
TIL there were chips made with Olestra that caused many to run to the restroom
#80
TIL A report about American fast food consumption concludes people actually eat more fast food as their income levels go up
#81
TIL Before Canada was officially named Canada, other names had been suggested but rejected. Some examples: Albertsland, Borealia, Britannia, Tuponia and others. The current name likely comes from the aboriginal word “Kanata” which means village or settlement.
#82
TIL despite being silent about Joseph McCarthy in public, President Dwight D. Eisenhower started a secret campaign that ultimately ended the Senator’s career.
#83
TIL In 1978, President Carter oversaw the installation of the first computers in the White House: a Hewlett-Packard HP 3000, water-cooled IBM laser printer, and Xerox Alto desktop computer for the Oval Office. Reagan later removed the Xerox Alto in 1981
#84
TIL The Salvation Army was originally opposed by and fought with The Skeleton Army which was composed of lower and working class citizens, punks and miscreants who objected to the SA’s views on abstinence and temperence.
#85
TIL In 1999 Tiger Woods hit a tee shot that landed behind a boulder. The boulder was ruled a ‘loose impedement’ which allowed it to be moved. Several of Tiger’s gallery and his caddie worked together to move the boulder, allowing Tiger to birdie the hole.
#86
TIL that Christopher Columbus’ smaller two ships were not really named the Niña and the Pinta. The Niña was actually named the Santa Clara, but was nicknamed after its owner, Juan Niño of Moguer. The original name of The Pinta is lost, and is only known by its nickname (the painted one).
#87
TIL about Royce Williams who in 1952 was engaged in a one-man dogfight with seven MiG-15s that lasted 35 minutes.
#88
TIL that seaweeds, like kelp, are not plants. They belong in the kingdom Protista. Seaweeds lack the vascular system and roots of a plant; they can absorb the water and nutrients they need directly from the ocean.
#89
TIL that CarMax was founded by the now-defunct consumer electronics company, Circuit City
#90
TIL since 2004 the residents of La California, a town in Italy, have held farcical ballots for the United States presidential elections. Although votes cast by La California residents do not count, they still send the result of each election to the nearby US consulate in Florence
#91
TIL more countries use the comma separator (17,6) than the point separator (17.6)
#92
TIL in 1999, Martin Lawrence collapsed from heat exhaustion while jogging in heavy clothing and a plastic suit in preparation for Big Momma’s House. He recovered in the hospital after entering a three-day near fatal coma due to a body temperature of 107 °F, his breathing assisted by a ventilator.
#93
TIL About ‘Project 100,000’, a Vietnam era program to recruit 100,000 men a year to fight America’s war in southeast Asia. Many of the recruits were illiterate, had IQs of less than 70, or suffered from other mental or physical impairments. Thousands of the recruits died in combat.
#94
TIL an RHS test building covered in ivy stayed 7.2C cooler then non covered buildings. The leave structure also kept the walls dry, lowering humidity and protecting it from corrosion
#95
TIL the first ally soldier to step onto the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion was Leonard Treherne “Max” Schroeder Jr. He made it out alive and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. He died in 2009 at the age of 90.
#96
TIL that Alarm clocks did exist before the snooze function, so there was already a standard gear setup that innovators had to work with. Getting the gear teeth to line up to allow for exactly ten minutes wasn’t possible, so they chose to set it at nine minutes and a few seconds.
#97
TIL Gregor Mendel’s research into inheritance was largely ignored or misunderstood until Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns independently duplicated his works in 1900. Mendel’s paper on plant hybridization had only been cited 3 times in the previous 35 years.
#98
TIL about Amobi Okoye, who moved to the US at 12 without any knowledge of American Football before graduating at 16 with All-state honors. He turned down Harvard to play for Louisville and went on to become the youngest NCAA, and eventually youngest NFL player in history.
#99
TIL while studying flight or fight a biologist grouped guppies in 3 categories “bold” (inspect threat), ordinary (hide), timid (flee). He then put a bass in with the guppies, 40 percent of the timid guppies and 15 percent of the ordinary guppies survived while none of the bold guppies did.
#100
TIL animal “zoomies” have a technical name: Frenetic Random Activity Periods, or “FRAPs”
#101
TIL that there is an island between Spain and France whose administration alternates every 6 months between both nations.
#102
TIL Jelly has traditionally been savory. The oldest known meat jelly recipe is from the 10th-century cook book Kitab al-Tabikh and ingredients include boiled fish heads, vinegar, and whole onions. Jelly containing fruits would come later.
#103
TIL that the first touch screen in a car was in a 1986 Buick Riviera. The display offered automatic climate control, AM/FM radio with optional graphic equalizer, trip calculations, gauges and even the vehicles diagnostic info. This included status on the powertrain, brake wear and electrical system.
#104
TIL Canadian country/pop singer Shania Twain is the only female artist in history to have three consecutive albums certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); one of those albums – Come On Over – has been certified Double Diamond.
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