Life’s a never-ending lesson in the best way imaginable. If you’re even slightly curious about the world and have an open mind, you can quite literally learn something new every single day. And I don’t know about you, dear Pandas, but I’m on a roll and I don’t plan to stop my worldly education any time soon.
Probably the best place to learn something new is the ‘Today I Learned’ subreddit that boasts 25.1 million members and has been enlightening netizens with interesting tidbits of trivia ever since it was founded in the ancient year of 2008. We’re huge fans of the TIL community and we’ve written about them in so much depth, you could stack our articles up to the Moon and back… probably. You’ll find Bored Panda's most recent articles about them right here, over here, as well as here.
Lenore Skenazy, the president of Let Grow and the founder of the Free-Range-Kids movement, went in-depth with Bored Panda in an interview about staying curious, continuing to learn independently, and engaging with the world as we grow, despite the hardships. "I’ve been wondering this myself: How to stay curious when hit by 'the blahs?' Next to Covid (and in great part thanks to Covid) the blahs are the most catching virus around. You get tired and bored by being tired and bored, talking about being tired and bored, and succumbing to them. Unfortunately, the whole thing is self-reinforcing: A feeling of listlessness leads you to scroll through your social media of choice, which makes you feel more blah, leading you to scroll some more, etc."
#1
TIL in 1992, a California middle school ordered teachers to cover up all "obscene" words in Fahrenheit 451 with black marker before issuing copies to students. The school stopped this practice after local newspapers commented on the irony of defacing a book that condemns censorship.
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#2
TIL about Lover’s Eye art. Jewelry popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s when stylish aristocratic Englishmen and women often wore the miniature portraits depicting their spouse or lover. Because the tiny watercolors revealed only the eye, the subject’s identity was kept secret.
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#3
TIL in the 1960's an American doctor tested if his patients could develop immunity to cancer by injecting them with cancer cells without their consent. He went on to be president of the American Association for Cancer Research.
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Lenore was very upfront about what we have to do to get our lives in order and bring a bit of fire back into our lives: "So before you can become curious again, you have to do the hard part: Get off the couch! Force yourself out the door. Why? Because beyond your four walls, things are never exactly the same. Weather, animals, people, sounds, smells, clouds—they’re all swirling about."
She continued: "Ask yourself to start noticing new things. I did that this morning with a friend. We took a walk around our neighborhood and started looking for interesting details in the homes and buildings we passed. It went from a walk down streets we’d seen a million times to a sort of treasure hunt. And the big thing we were really hunting for? Curiosity! When you’re curious you’re alive again—noticing, thinking, making connections. You can’t do that if there’s no new information coming in. So your first step is to force yourself out of a rut by leaving the house (harder during the pandemic, but not impossible)."
#4
TIL John Krasinski wore a wig in season 3 of The Office so he could film Leatherheads. Krasinski pitched the idea to the producer who rejected it because it would be too obvious. John, who was wearing the wig during the meeting, told him it wouldn't be, took off the wig, and was granted approval.
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#5
TIL that the stick -- a small tree branch -- was inducted into the (U.S.) National Toy Hall of Fame in 2008. Organizers called it one of the world's oldest toys and said sticks "promote free play -- the freedom to invent and discover."
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#6
TIL a doctor reviewed the injuries sustained by Marv and Harry in Home Alone 1 & 2, and concluded that 23 of the injuries would have resulted in death.
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Aiming for new goals and sparking a desire to learn new things also requires leaving our entrenched routines behind and trying something new. Lenore pointed out that we all have the power to learn new skills and pick up new hobbies during the endless lockdowns. "Think of something you’d like to be able to say you’ve been working on, especially once life returns to normal: 'Well, I wasted a lot of that free time I had, but at least I started...' Or, 'At least I learned…' For my sister, she’s taking ballet online. For my husband, he’s learning film editing. For me it’s… oh God! I better come up with something fast! Um…let’s say I will learn how to create a Clubhouse program. Ok? (You can check in with me in a few weeks.)"
So start off by going outside "if only to get your blood flowing," then "think of someone whose skill at something you envy," and "take the first small step toward that skill." According to Lenore, even a tiny step is enough because you break the ice of the inertia. "Do not worry if you are taking that first step as simply something you’re doing thanks to social pressure, or for someone other than yourself. Change is change—the motivation doesn’t matter."
#7
TIL that Prince opened for The Rolling Stones in 1981. Rolling Stones fans were not pleased with Prince that they not only threw objects on stage but shouted homophobic and racial slurs. Prince was so upset that he off stage and cried backstage.
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#8
TIL that the F.B.I. and C.I.A. recruit heavily from the Mormon population because they are usually cheaper to do a security clearance on, they often speak another language from their mission trips and they usually have a low risk lifestyle.
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#9
TIL: Researchers taught African grey parrots to buy food using tokens. They were then paired up, one parrot given ten tokens and the other none. Without any incentive for sharing, parrots with tokens started to give some to their broke partners so that everyone could eat.
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However, the internet is a double-edged sword and it can sometimes be easy to get lost between what's fact and what's fiction. You have to be very wary of fake news as you surf the net. Lenore shared some of her insights about this, too.
"When you’re reading an article that seems to be so shocking that you’re amazed this is the first time you’re hearing about it, take a short phrase from the piece and Google it. I did this yesterday—I was reading about a girl not allowed to take her anti-epilepsy drug at school because it contained CBD, even though she had a prescription! Turns out the article, dated March 2021, was actually a story re-published in its entirety from three years ago. That’s why no one else was talking about it—it was literally not news. So if something strikes you as fishy, go fishing," she said.
#10
TIL When the British raised taxes on beer in the 17th century, they inadvertently made gin the cheapest alcoholic beverage in the country. The ensuing widespread consumption of gin led to substantial alcoholism problems in Britain, with the death rate overtaking the birth rate during this period
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#11
TIL despite being depicted on California's flag, the California grizzly bear has been extinct since 1924.
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#12
TIL before synthetic plastics were invented, a substance called Hemacite was widely used to make everything from roller skate wheels to doorknobs. Its ingredients are blood and sawdust.
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"As for whether or not your fishing will lead you to disinformation rather than the truth, try not to fish blindly. If you’re curious about crime stats, for instance, look these up on a government website, not some random blog," Lenore explained, adding that if you find something very hard to believe, look up the story on Snopes that tracks down whether or not popular, shocking stories are true or made up.
"The nonprofit I run, Let Grow, has its own myth-busting page, investigating fears and rumors about children’s safety," Lenore pointed out. "So that’s a source you can trust, too! Stay curious. Stay skeptical without being cynical. And if something sounds too good—or too terrible—to be true, check it out!"
#13
TIL many Chinese medical tourists who go to South Korea for inexpensive and high quality plastic surgery have difficulty re-entering China due to their passports photos not matching their new face post op.
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#14
TIL that for 18 months, a village in Wales was mystified as to why their broadband internet crashed at 7am every morning, until engineers "picked up a large burst of electrical interference" springing from one dude turning on his very old TV.
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#15
TIL that staying awake for more than 24 hours brings deficiencies in performance equivalent to having a blood alcohol level of more than 0.10. Most western developed countries consider 0.05 BAC as the threshold for intoxication.
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Vanessa Bohns, an associate professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University earlier explained to Bored Panda that we have nothing to be embarrassed about if we don’t happen to know something. We all have our knowledge blindspots (and the content that the ‘Today I Learned’ community posts is a testament to this fact).
"We spend a lot of time and effort presenting an ideal version of ourselves to other people. When something happens that contrasts with the image we’ve been projecting—when we say or do something that shows we actually aren’t as graceful or as smart as we’d like people to believe—we feel embarrassed," Vanessa detailed to Bored Panda why it is that we’re often ashamed to admit that we’re wrong about something.
"Discovering you were wrong about something most everyone else around you has long known to be true is one of those moments. In that moment we learn, 'Wait a minute, maybe I haven’t been presenting the image of being smart or worldly that I thought I was presenting all this time,' which is embarrassing,” she said that we feel social pressure to be all-knowing and, well, ‘perfect.’
#16
TIL that at birth babies eyes aren't developed enough to perceive colour or depth, it usually takes about 6 months for their vision to reach adult levels.
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#17
TIL that during the sinking of the RMS Titanic, many passengers refused to evacuate, insisting they were safer on the ship than in the tiny lifeboats. Chief baker Charles Joughin eventually took it upon himself to forcibly drag reluctant passengers onto the deck and hurl them into the lifeboats
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#18
TIL: Vodka doesn't have to come from potatoes, it can be made from anything which will ferment. Even grass, or salmon and old newspapers. Vodka just needs to be a clear spirit distilled to 190 proof.
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However, embarrassment has its positive quirks. So the next time you’re blushing because you found out you weren’t aware of some fact about the world, you can remember this and feel better. “One thing that’s interesting about embarrassment is that, for as much as we might experience it as painful in the moment, it’s actually very socially adaptive. Being embarrassed signals to other people that you care about what they think. And that actually draws people in to you,” Vanessa, from Cornell University, said.
“So blushing, burying your head in your hands, laughing, acknowledging how embarrassing something was, are all totally healthy ways to react,” Bohns said that we should embrace embarrassment instead of shying away like a lot of us instinctively want to do.
However, there’s a flip side to this. There’s an unhealthy way to react to embarrassment, too. “The unhealthy way to react is to pretend you’re not embarrassed, that you didn’t make a mistake, or to get angry. Those things undo the positive effect that embarrassment typically has on other people by conveying insincerity and pushing people away rather than drawing them in.”
#19
TIL Tim Curry, a lifelong Scooby-Doo fan, was offered the villain role in the 2002 Scooby-Doo movie, but turned it down after learning the film would include Scrappy-Doo, a character he disliked.
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#20
TIL Basque (a language spoken near the Spain/France border) is a language isolate; not only is it NOT a Romance language, it's not even an Indo-European language. It is the only surviving Pre-Indo-European language in Western Europe.
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#21
TIL Czechoslovakia split up against the wishes of its people: "only 37% of Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution"
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Meanwhile, Lenore told Bored Panda during an earlier interview that school is actually a fairly new development and things were done very differently for much of our history as a species.
“In the United States, for instance, school only became compulsory a little over 100 years ago. Previously—for hundreds of thousands of years of human history—kids learned simply by watching, copying, helping, and playing,” Lenore explained to Bored Panda.
“In other words, they’d hang around the adults, see how they made things like baskets and arrowheads, they’d ask questions, noodle around, and try to copy what their elders were doing. They’d also help out as soon as they could—fetching things, tracking animals, whatever—and in between they’d be playing with a group of mixed-age kids. All these activities were fueled by curiosity,” Lenore said.
#22
TIL Gotye didn't monetize his music on YouTube, missing out in millions of dollars in revenue from just his "Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)" video on YouTube.
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#23
TIL that newlywed couples who watched and discussed five movies about relationships over the period of a month reduced their three-year divorce or separation rate from 24% to 11%. That makes it as effective in reducing divorce rates as a 20-hour therapist-led early marriage counselling program.
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#24
TIL that Argentina has the most pets per capita, with 80% of the population having a pet. Argentineans have the most dogs (66% of pet-owners), Russians have the most cats (57% of pet-owners), Turks have the most birds (20% of the population), and Chinese have the most fish (17% of the population)
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“You were motivated to learn what the bigger kids in your group knew, too, because they were so cool. Your entire day consisted of observing and practicing the stuff you needed to know— skills and games. If you weren’t curious, you weren’t going to enjoy life, or succeed at it.”
Modern schooling, however, focuses on compliance rather than curiosity. “One reason kids might seem less curious today is because most of their education, inside and outside of school, doesn’t require self-motivation, it requires compliance. The drive is extrinsic, not intrinsic. Kids fill out worksheets because they have to, not because these seem interesting, or have any immediate connection to the ‘real’ world,” Lenore told Bored Panda.
#25
TIL After crashing, a driver in German was fined for using Tesla touchscreen wiper controls, under the same rules as using a phone while driving. The German court decided touchscreen car controls should be treated as a distracting electronic device
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#26
TIL Isaac Newton studied the occult and predicted the end of the world as we know it to happen around the year 2060. He believed humanity would then progress into an era of divinely inspired peace.
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#27
TIL some luxury buildings in New York City will only let you buy an appartment there after board approval. Mariah Carey was once rejected after showing up to the interview in a 'bare midriff' and answering "he be dead" when asked if Biggie would be visiting the building.
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The very same mentality of focusing on compliance and doing as we’re told can be seen in extra-curricular activities, too, which can snuff out our inner motivation. “Learning soccer means doing the drills the coach assigns, as opposed to tagging along with the older kids and working hard to get good enough so that they’d start letting you play. The key to curiosity, then, is giving kids enough free, unstructured time for them to find something they love to do for its own sake—not for a grade, or coach,” the expert said.
#28
TIL the first country to recognize Greek independence was not any of the western powers, but Haiti, who alledgedly sent 25ton of Coffee beans to finance their rebellion.
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#29
TIL in the months before his sudden death, former Mythbuster Grant Imahara built a fully animatronic Baby Yoda. Having spent 3 months of his personal time designing, programming, and 3D printing the project, he intended to bring it to hospitals to cheer up sick children.
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#30
TIL Billy Joel got into an argument with a younger man about what the worst era to be young in was. The younger man told Joel that at least he got to grow up in the 50s when "nothing happened." Flabbergasted, Joel began listing the events of the 50s, which later became "We Didn't Start the Fire"
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#31
TIL that Ring was on Shark Tank and walked away without a deal. Ring later sold to Amazon for $1 billion.
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#32
TIL: The Black Death was responsible for the beginning of the end of European Feudalism/Manoralism. As there were fewer workers, their lords were forced to pay higher wages. With higher wages, there were fewer restrictions on travel. Eventually, this would lead to a trade class/middle class.
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#33
TIL Winchester Cathedral was built on marsh and was on the verge of collapse as it sunk into the earth. A diver named William Walker worked alone in pitch-black water for five years, eventually putting down 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks, and 900,000 bricks to save its foundation.
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#34
TIL Hugh Laurie gave Lin-Manuel Miranda the idea for the song "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton after guest starring on House in 2009. Miranda mentioned to Laurie he was trying to write a breakup letter from King George to the colonies and "without blinking, he improv'd at me, 'Awwww, you'll be back'."
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#35
TIL on the day he was assassinated by revolutionary nihilists, Alexander II of Russia had signed a ukaz establishing elected positions for commoners in the Tsardom. This edict was immediately dissolved by his son, who went on to consolidate and expand the Tsar's power in Russia.
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#36
TIL Berkshire Hathaway was a failing textile business. The chairman at the time offered to buy Warren Buffet's stake, but changed his offer last minute. Angered, Buffet bought more, taking control of the company and firing the chairman. Berkshire Hathaway is now the 8th largest company in the world.
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#37
TIL Frank Sinatra was hired by Life Magazine as a ringside photographer for the Muhammad Ali & Joe Frazier Heavyweight Boxing match, "The Fight of the Century", that took place 50 years a go today, March 8, 1971. One of his photos was good enough to be the cover of the magazine.
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#38
TIL the Thirteen Colonies were used as a penal colony for English criminals between the 1600s to 1776. Historians estimate between 50,000 to 120,000 criminals were transfered. After America's indepedence the Brits tried to substitute America with Ghana and Senegal, ultimately deciding on Australia.
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#39
TIL of the Sausage Duel. Otto Von Bismarck challenged his political nemesis (and pioneer of social medicine) Rudolf Virchow to a duel, allowing him to choose weapons. Rudolf decided upon sausages. One sauage would be safe, the other infected with parasitic larvae. Otto recinded the challenge.
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#40
TIL that during the American Civil War, several divisions of the confederate army had a large snowball fight. It started when a couple of hundred men from Texas plotted a friendly fight with men from Arkansas, which spiralled into a brawl involving 9,000 soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia.
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#41
TIL honeybees used in almond groves often die of pesticides, lack of biodiversity, arousal from dormancy early. To mitigate, growers split hives, put mail-order queens in new hives, feed bees fake pollen. The "Bee Better" program puts diverse flora in almond groves as natural pest control/bee food.
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#42
TIL the Death Star was actually designed before we could see the massive crater on Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, meaning its resemblance is purely coincidental.
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#43
TIL that there are more than 1,300 stone rings across the British Islands and Stonehenge is only the most famous of them.
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#44
TIL a babirusa's tusks grow upwards through the skin, curve back, and can get so long they penetrate the babirusa's own skull, killing it.
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#45
TIL that in Moscow, packs of stray dogs will sometimes send out a smaller, cuter member to beg for food, apparently realising it will be more successful than its bigger, less attractive counterparts
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#46
TIL that at an Allied checkpoint during the Battle of the Bulge, US General Omar Bradley was detained as a possible spy when he correctly identified Springfield as the capital of Illinois. The American military police officer who questioned him mistakenly believed the capital was Chicago
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#47
TIL that Shakuntala Devi from India, also known as the human computer, gave the 23rd root of a 201 digit number in 50 seconds. The answer was verified at the US Bureau of Standards by the UNIVAC 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.
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#48
TIL that the Hershey Ice Cream Company is a completely separate entity from the Hershey Chocolate Company, despite both being founded in Lancaster County in the same year by unrelated men named Hershey.
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#49
TIL comic Andy Kaufman's 4-F deferment for the draft concluded that Kaufman lived in a fantasy world, disconnected from reality, and if put in the military would "lose his mind". He loved the letter and proudly displayed it as he had purposely treated his psych eval as a high-stakes joke.
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#50
TIL Alexander Fleming’s mold could not produce penicillin fast enough for mass production; itwasn’t until 15 years later that lab worker ‘Mouldy’ Mary Hunt tested a moldy cantaloupe in a grocery store and discovered the strain that is used to produce all penicillin today
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#51
TIL in 1991 it was discovered that the heart has its "little brain" or "intrinsic cardiac nervous system." This "heart brain" is composed of approximately 40,000 neurons that are alike neurons in the brain, meaning that the heart has its own nervous system.
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#52
TIL about Wrong Way Corrigan. In 1938 he was denied permission to make a solo transatlantic flight because his plane was unsafe, but given the okay to fly to California. He took off, made a U-turn, and disappeared into the clouds. 28 hours later he landed in Ireland, claiming his compass had broken.
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#53
TIL the man who Mount Everest is named after, George Everest, didn't want the honor of having the world's tallest mountain bear his name. He pointed out his name was difficult to write or pronounce in Hindi and all previous Himalayan peaks were officially given indigenous names.
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#54
TIL that after being told a jet powered car can run on anything that burns, the President of Mexico rode it running on tequila.
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#55
TIL in 882 Louis III of France mounted his horse in pursuit of a girl who was running to seek refuge in her father's house. He then rode through a low door, hit his head on the lintel and fractured his skull. He died childless. He is one of two French kings to die from hitting a door lintel.
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#56
TIL about Kiyoshi Shimizu, a Japanese journalist that helped solved a series of child kidnaping cases and released an innocent man from further prosecution. He also helped solved the murder of Shiori Ino which led to the changes to legal treatment of stalking in Japan
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#57
TIL that late in his reign as Emperor of China, Wu of Jin had over 5000 wives and concubines. Given this gluttony of choice, he let his goats decide whom he should spend the night with. He would ride on a cart drawn by the goats, and wherever the goats would stop, that's who he would have.
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#58
TIL that Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam was smoking so much pot that he installed a fireman's pole in his home so he can get to his studio faster so he doesn't forget ideas for songs/lyrics he's creating.
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#59
TIL Bowie lured unknown Stevie Ray Vaughn to play on his '83 album "Let's Dance" by dangling an opening act on tour. However, after recording, Vaughn was relegated to backup musician and wouldn't be allowed to talk about his music. So, he quit, released "Texas Flood", and became a superstar instead.
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#60
TIL Michael Keaton's real name is Michael Douglas, but he was forced to use Keaton because the other actor was already using his name. As a result, he often inadvertently plays tricks on people expecting Michael Douglas - only to get Michael Keaton.
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#61
TIL that the Avedis Zildjian Company, which manufactures cymbals, was founded in 1623 in Constantinople, which was at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. The name Zildjian literally means "cymbal smith".
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#62
TIL That mount Everest became so popular that in 2019 there was a 12 hours long line of around 200 people at the very peak, with a few people dying because of it
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#63
TIL that crowd noises for the movie 'Spartacus' [1960] were recorded at Spartan Stadium of MSU. Prior to a football game between MSU and Notre Dame, 76,000 spectators were instructed by actor John Gavin [Caesar] to roar, 'Spartacus! Spartacus!', 'Hail Crassus' and of course, 'I'm Spartacus!'
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#64
TIL Research shows that viewing online Cat media (i.e. pictures and videos) is related to positive emotions. It may even work as a form of digital therapy or stress relief for some users. Some feelings of guilt from postponing tasks can also be reduced by viewing Cat content.
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#65
TIL that in the USA, only 53% of Generation Z-ers (people born from 1997 onwards) identify as sports fans, compared to 63% of all adults and 69% of millennials. Generation Z-ers are half as likely as millennials to watch live sports regularly, and twice as likely to never watch
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#66
TIL that Elizabeth Coleman White, whose family owned a cranberry farm, teamed up with botanist Frederick Coville to develop and cultivate the first blueberry crop. White paid people for each bush they found with blueberries that measured at least 5/8 of an inch. Coville uprooted and grafted them.
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#67
TIL that Graham Hill did not pass his driving test till the age of 24 and joined professional racing just a year later. He is the only driver to achieve the Triple Crown of Motorsport, an achievement defined as winning the Indianapolis 500, the the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix.
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#68
TIL of Africanized honey bees, or "killer bees". They were crossbred between African and European honey bees to produce bees that are less aggressive and produce more honey. They inadvertently made this species of bees produce less honey, are very aggressive, and kill a horse
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#69
TIL The Code of Hammurabi, bestowed total jurisdiction over brewing and beer to women, indicated by the word “she” used to describe every tavern owner. Sumerian women didn’t have many opportunities to earn a living, but they were responsible for brewing beer and allowed to open their own taverns.
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#70
TIL when filming "The Lost Patrol" in Arizona, the cast only worked in early morning and late afternoon, to avoid the intense day heat. The producer wanted longer filming hours, and to prove his point, walked around in the open at midday. He soon collapsed from the heat, requiring hospital treatment
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#71
TIL that a cat named Orlando once beat financial experts in an investing competition by randomly throwing a toy mouse on a grid of numbers that each correspond to different companies
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#72
TIL that certain plants can warn other nearby plants of danger. When these plants are damaged, they release airborne chemicals that tell other plants to start producing compunds that can hurt and repel herbivores. They can also produce smells that attract insects which attack herbivores.
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#73
TIL that more than 380,000 African American soldiers served in the Army during WWI. THE U.S. Army wasn’t comfortable with the idea of training black men for combat, so they were assigned to train under/fight along side the French
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#74
TIL about pack horse librarians that serviced the Appalachian communities (e.g., rural Kentucky) in the mid 1930s to early 1940s who were mostly women who rode on horses or mules to deliver library books to remote communities during the Great Depression.
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#75
TIL in the 2008 Olympics 200m race, Shawn Crawford finished 4th, but after 2 sprinters were disqualified for running outside their lanes, he received the silver medal. After the Olympics, he gave the medal to the 2nd-placed athlete, with a note saying "You ran a silver medal race and deserve this"
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#76
TIL hummingbird nests are the smallest in the world. Most species of hummingbirds weave spider silk into the nest for structural support and to make it more elastic to accommodate the offspring as they grow. Often lichen will be attached to the outside of the nest for camouflage.
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#77
TIL: The Apollo Guidance computer was programmed in metric, but showed imperial values in the displays. Using metric meant fewer calculations thus optimizing the use of the limited processing power and the astronauts were used to imperial so that's what they saw on the display.
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#78
TIL With 5 million vending machines nationwide (that's 1 vending machine for every 23 people) and natural disasters commonplace, Japan has specialized vending machines that have a backup battery and dispense free drinks and food in the event of a major emergency.
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#79
TIL that Star Trek: The Next Generation was to include dolphins and whales as crewmembers but the idea proved too expensive to film and was stopped except for mentions of Cetacean Operations.
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#80
TIL that American economist Richard Thaler, upon finding out he won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on irrational decision-making, said he would spend the prize money as "irrationally as possible."
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#81
TIL when recording a guest spot on The Simpsons, Justin Timberlake took issue with a line in which he said "Word!" saying it felt inauthentic. As a prank, the staff then edited his dialogue in production so every line ended with him saying "Word!"
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#82
TIL about Mariano Martinez. A man who in 1971 modified an ice cream machine to create the first frozen margarita machine. He did this to meet demand for a popular margarita recipe he was serving at the time. You can find his invention on display at the Smithsonian Museum for American history.
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#83
TIL: Late wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow once saved three children from a burning house and 40% of his skin was left with second degree burns forcing him to retire and hospitalized for two months. Bam Bam said he had "no regrets" of his act of courage, as long as all three kids were safe.
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#84
TIL in 1913, John D. Rockefeller was worth $900 million, or 3% of the entire GDP of the United States that year. His fortune was worth a modern equivalent of $418 billion.
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#85
TIL of Motts Tonelli, a Notre Dame fullback who ran in the winning TD against USC in 1937. 5 years later in 1942 he had his class ring confiscated during the Bataan Death March. A Japanese officer returned his ring, telling Tonelli that he was US-educated and recognized him from his time at USC.
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#86
TIL of Adolfo Kaminsky, a 18 year-old French forger who faked IDs for Jews during WWII. He once worked for 3 days straight to make papers for 300 children until he passed out. He kept his work a secret - his own daughter only learned the details while writing a book about him.
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#87
TIL in 1963 Robert Kearns invented the intermittent windshield wiper, presented it to Ford Motor Co. and was hired. Ford fired him and took his technology. He sued Ford for patent infringement and after 12 yrs. of litigation, at times without a lawyer, the court awarded Kearns 10.3 M dollars.
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#88
TIL that Lenny Kravitz was named for his uncle Leonard Kravitz, who died saving the lives of other Korean War soldiers in 1951. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2012 after Congress reviewed Jewish (and Hispanic) recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross who were denied the higher honor.
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#89
TIL in 2014, the Indian government employed 40 people to impersonate monkeys, to scare off real monkeys causing havoc around the parliament in Delhi. The men made screeching noises similar to those of black-faced langur monkeys, imitating their whoops and barks, to frighten red-faced macaque monkeys
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#90
TIL that a Christian sect called "Millerites" believed that Christ would return by Oct. 22, 1844. When that didn't happen, the "Great Disappointment" caused them to fall into confusion and disband, with some former Millerites reinterpreting their doctrine and forming the Seventh Day Adventists.
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#91
TIL that by the age of 18, Elagabalus had been a high priest, consul, married four times, Roman Emperor for four years, and the victim of an assassination devised by his grandmother.
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#92
TIL that B92, a dissident radio station in Serbia, played Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power' on repeat when they were banned from broadcasting news. The song became an anti-Milošević anthem in 1991.
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#93
TIL in 1950, four Scottish students stole back the Stone of Scone (the stone in which Scottish monarchs were crowned) from England and brought it all the way back to Scotland.
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#94
TIL that FBI's nationwide manhunt to capture depression-era gangster John Dillinger after he broke out of jail cost them about 2 million dollars at the time. The total amount of money his gang looted was around 500,000 dollars.
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#95
TIL That the drought of 1976-77 aligned harmoniously with the rise of skateboarding. In effort to conserve water, pools were being emptied all throughout Southern California. With that, emerging skaters like Tony Alva, Steve Olson, and the late Jay Adams were jumping fences and skating empty pools.
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#96
TIL a Danish ex-Jagercorps operative drove a post-apocalyptic 1979 Camaro through the war-torn streets of Sarajevo to deliver food to starving children during the Yugoslavia War.
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#97
TIL that Alexander Graham Bell was a eugenicist and feared the creation of a "deaf race", advocating for the elimination of sign language and deaf schools in order to prevent deaf people from reproducing
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#98
TIL that the first character on screen in Super Mario 64 is Lakitu, Mario's camera operator. Because the 1996 game was the first in the series to have 3D gameplay, the developers needed to teach players that they were controlling both Mario AND the camera.
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#99
TIL the old man who died in the Mt St Helens eruption was once sunk by a U-boat, smuggled booze, threw his ex-wife into a lake during arguments, got park rangers drunk, impersonated game wardens, assaulted taxmen, hated hippies, chased off a Supreme Court Justice and died with his cats on a volcano
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#100
TIL That hockey legend Wayne Gretzky had a cameo on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. As a huge soap opera fan in 1981, Gretzky made a cameo on the daytime show as a mafia boss. His one line was, “I’m Wayne from the Edmonton operation.”
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#101
TIL that the lyrics in Le Freak by CHIC originally contained the words “fuck off” rather then “freak out”. They got the idea after being denied entry to a club and the bouncer told them to “fuck off”. The lyrics were changed since they couldn’t say fuck on the radio.
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#102
TIL In 2010, scientists grew slime mold in a dish, placing the mold in a central position representing Tokyo. They placed oats (major cities), and used light (which slime molds avoid) for mountains. The slime mold grew, nearly identically recreating the Tokyo Rail system.
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#103
TIL: There was a book about a famous train leaving King’s Cross Station on a magical adventure, written in 1937 by Doris Crockford (the same name as a witch Harry Potter meets in the first book)
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#104
TIL about zombie taxa. A zombie taxon is a fossil specimen that somehow gets washed out and re-deposited into much younger rock, making it seem like the animal was walking around long after it had gone extinct.
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#105
TIL pollen-deprived bumble bees tend to bite plant leaves more often than when pollen is plentiful; the bumble bee bites stimulate early flowering. Scientists compared bumble bee-bitten plants and unbitten plants. Bitten plants bloomed in 17 days; the un-bitten took an average of 33 days to bloom.
Image credits: reddit.com
#106
TIL Paul McCartney wrote the song, “She’s Leaving Home”, after reading a story on the front page of the Daily Mail about girl who ran away from her parents. The girl, Melanie Coe, coincidentally met McCartney when he chose her as the prize winner in a dancing contest three years earlier
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#107
TIL About Debbie Mathers, Eminem's mom who not only tried to sue him for 10 million dollars in a "slander" suit, but also released a set of diss tracks with two unknown rappers to get back at Eminem for the things he said about her. She lost the suit and then released even more songs about her abuse.
Image credits: reddit.com
#108
TIL NPR radio host Ira Glass, who has done the show "This American Life" since 1996, received a raise from $170,000 to $278,000 in 2013. Glass said this raise was "unseemly" and asked it to be lowered to $146,000.
Image credits: reddit.com
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