Life’s a lot better when you stay curious and open-minded about the world. That’s easier said than done, however. Adult responsibilities, work, studies, chores, and stress all get in the way. But if you have a few minutes to spare, some corners of the internet reward you with newfound knowledge.
To share some of that knowledge with you, we’re showcasing some of the most intriguing and unusual facts shared by members of the ‘Today I Learned’ (TIL) online community this June. Scroll down to expand your mind. Hopefully, these facts will pique your curiosity and inspire you to spend more time reading about topics you never knew you were interested in.
#1
TIL that when his son Xinzhen was abducted by a child trafficker in 1997, Guo Gangtang spent 24 years, his life savings and 10 motorbikes on a search for him across China. They were finally reunited in 2021 and his efforts helped the Chinese authorities find over 100 more abducted children.
Image credits: ShabtaiBenOron
#2
TIL that Ken Allen, an orangutan at the San Diego Zoo, became famous for his many successful escapes. During his escapes, he would peacefully stroll around the zoo looking at other animals. He never acted aggressively toward patrons, but would throw rocks at Otis, another orangutan he “despised”
Image credits: bnrshrnkr
#3
TIL in 1976, Jaime Sin was appointed a Cardinal in the Catholic Church, being formally known as “Cardinal Sin”. He would greet guests to his home with “Welcome to the house of Sin”.
Image credits: EastSignal
#4
TIL that in 1999, 11-year old Mitchell Schop wrote to his favorite band, Cake, and asked if they would play his Bar Mitzvah. After Schop sang his favorite song of theirs to the band over the phone, Cake agreed and made Schop’s party the first stop on their 1999 world tour
Image credits: MrMojoFomo
#5
TIL the old Danish criteria for common law marriage was that” If anyone has a mistress in his home for three winters and obviously sleeps with her, and she commands lock and key and obviously eats and drinks with him, then she shall be his wife and rightful lady of the house.”
Image credits: watchful_tiger
#6
TIL that although intensely private, Joe DiMaggio allowed a children’s hospital to use his name and image on condition that they never turn away a child because of inability to pay. The deal was struck with a promise and a handshake.
Image credits: Overall-Register9758
#7
TIL after a woman put $40 into a lottery vending machine with the intention of buying multiple cheaper tickets, “some rude person” bumped into her & caused her to accidentally select a $30 ticket. She was annoyed until she started scratching that ticket & realized she’d won the $10 million jackpot.
Image credits: tyrion2024
#8
TIL that, in the first printed attestation of orangutans in western sources, Malays claimed the ape could talk but preferred not to “lest he be compelled to labour”
Image credits: bnrshrnkr
#9
TIL that a sunfish in a Japanese aquarium became so lonely after the aquarium closed to visitors for renovations that it stopped eating. Only after staff placed photos of people’s faces near its tank did the sunfish perk up and start eating again
Image credits: Prior-Student4664
#10
TIL 15-year-old Shyam Lal in India decided to take his spade and dig a pond to quench the thirst of people and cattles. Fellow villagers laughed at him. Lal identified a spot in the forest in and kept digging — for 27 years. The result was a one-acre 15-feet deep pond.
Image credits: SuvenPan
#11
TIL Humans are not the only species that has discovered agriculture. Ants have been practicing agriculture for at least 50 million years. The domestication of plant, fungus, and animal species by ants is well documented.
Image credits: lnfinity
#12
TIL that Jeremy Clarkson’s mother, Shirley Clarkson, designed and created the very first Paddington Bear toy in the early 1970s, prototypes that she made for Jeremy and his sister later became a licensed product that funded his education and helped launch his TV career
Image credits: dtdowntime
#13
TIL there’s a philosophy that believes humans shouldn’t procreate and should eventually go extinct and it’s called antinatalism
Image credits: AlmostMidnight_
#14
TIL in the 1980s, a woman bought a ring at a car boot sale for £10 & proceeded to wear it regularly under the assumption it was a piece of costume jewelry. However when she had it appraised decades later, it was identified as a real 26-carat diamond ring from the 1800s, which she then sold for £656K
Image credits: tyrion2024
#15
TIL Ireland’s population peaked in the census of 1841 with over 8 million people. It never recovered from the long lasting effects of the potato famine. Was at 4 million for half a century. Today, it’s at 7.2 million, having not fully recovered almost 2 centuries post famine
Image credits: lemelisk42
#16
TIL that all diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob and fatal insomnia, have a perfect 100% mortality rate. There are no cases of survival and these diseases are invariably fatal.
Image credits: exophades
#17
TIL People with social anxiety disorder have a different gut microbiome – transplanting their microbiome to mice causes the mice to suffer from increased social fear
Image credits: FissileAlarm
#18
TIL at the luxurious French brothel One-Two-Two there were themed rooms. One of the rooms, the Orient Express was a replica of a train car. It had sound effects and shook and bounced like a real train in motion. You could even have an intrusive conductor barge into the room and join in.
Image credits: TheMadhopper
#19
TIL that in 2003 Hideo Kojima designed a Game Boy Advance game with a light sensor built into the cartridge. The player’s in-game weapon is charged by taking the game outside and playing it in natural sunlight, and game mechanics change when it’s dark out in your area
Image credits: Smaptimania
#20
TIL house cats are considered to be “semi-domesticated”
Image credits: wearing_moist_socks
#21
TIL blood lost during a cycle isn’t blood that’s been “stored” over the month long cycle, it’s blood coming from blood vessels in the uterus. As the uterine lining pulls away, ‘tiny’ ruptures/tears are caused in the blood vessels, and heavy cycles are caused by enlarged vessels & hormone imbalance
Image credits: Stargazingmyst
#22
TIL the first words ever spoken in a feature film were, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” — delivered by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927).
Image credits: a_splintered_mind
#23
TIL in 2014 Ben Affleck was banned for life from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas after he was caught on camera counting cards at a high rollers table. He was told by security that he was “too good” and had been deemed an advantage blackjack player.
Image credits: tyrion2024
#24
TIL 2055 brown recluse spiders were removed from a house in Kansas. The spiders had four human roommates who had lived in their house for many years and were never bitten, despite frequent encounters with the spiders.
Image credits: Gecko99
#25
TIL that after featuring as the “childlike empress” in The Neverending Story, the 11 year old actress began receiving marriage proposals from adult men resulting in her hiatus from acting until she was an adult.
Image credits: loadnurmom
#26
TIL that in 2020, an Oregon man driving a stolen car crashed into a woman driving another stolen car
Image credits: racc15
#27
TIL a human brain uses 12 watts to think while, if it could, an AI system doing the same processing could use 2.7 billion watts
Image credits: 49orth
#28
TIL that there is a strategy for winning competitive debates called “spreading”, which involves making as many arguments as possible within a short time so that the opponent is unable to respond to them all. The technique has been described as unfair and as “sounding like a cattle auctioneer”.
Image credits: Vegetable-Orange-965
#29
TIL that French used to have and provide mobile military brothels to their soldiers between WW1 and as late as 2003.
Image credits: my4coins
#30
TIL Margot Kidder (Lois Lane from the original Superman) had a manic breakdown after the laptop she was using to write her autobiography crashed. She disappeared for four days
Image credits: aprettyp
#31
TIL that the demand for Ozempic is so great that it has boosted Denmark’s entire economy
Image credits: SocraticTiger
#32
TIL that Hetty Green, also called the “witch of Wall Street,” was incredibly rich, yet she continued to live in inexpensive lodgings, avoiding any display of wealth and seeking medical treatment for herself at charity clinics. On her death in 1916, Green left an estate of more than $100,000,000.
Image credits: Dystopics_IT
#33
TIL that Judaism has a roughly 2500-year-old prayer for using the bathroom in which you thank God for giving you the right number of orifices and not sealing them or making new ones
Image credits: Smaptimania
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