There's always something new you can learn. Something that can broaden your horizons. You just have to know where to look.
One of the places that offer a never-ending flow of knowledge is the subreddit 'Today I Learned' (or TIL for short). People go there to share all the interesting stuff they discover, and the fact that its members are the ones who produce its content is what makes TIL such an enjoyable encyclopedia. It's legit. It's unpredictable. And it's constantly getting new submissions. What more could one ask for?
Continue scrolling to check out some of its hottest new posts and if you want to continue your "studies", fire up our earlier pieces on the subreddit here, here, and here.
#1
TIL Judith Love Cohen, who helped create the Abort-Guidance System which rescued the Apollo 13 astronauts, went to work on the day she was in labor. She took a printout of a problem she was working on to the hospital. She called her boss and said she finished the problem and gave birth to Jack Black
Image credits: holyfruits
#2
TIL About a 17 year old kid that was given an old iPhone for free, and using the "barter" section of Craigslist made 14 trades, ending with a Porsche. Along the way he traded for newer phones, computers, motorcycles, and eventually cars.
Image credits: Abe_Froman_SKOC
#3
TIL about the Great Green Wall, an effort to plant trees to stop desertification in the Sahara that began in 2007. Ethiopia has planted over 5.5 billion seedling since
Image credits: learnedoptimist
#4
TIL that in 1995, a man received a "check" for $95,000 as junk mail. Jokingly, he deposited it into his account. The "check" met all of the legal criteria for a check and was cashed
Image credits: EtOHMartini
#5
TIL when a chimpanzee that learns an effective method to crack nuts open is placed into a new group that uses a less effective strategy, it will eventually stop using the superior method just to blend in with the rest of the chimps
Image credits: inkspring
#6
TIL in 1998, a 10-year-old girl in Austria was dragged into a car and kidnapped. The case remained unsolved until she knocked on someone's door in 2006 saying: "I am Natascha Kampusch." She had just escaped the secret cellar of a local technician that abused her for 8 years
Image credits: iajzz
#7
TIL that in 1999, a group of hackers discovered that they could enter any Hotmail account by simply entering “eh” as a password. It was fixed by Microsoft within two hours.
Image credits: EL-PLANTAIN
#8
TIL when your immune system fights an infection, it cranks up the mutation rate during antibody production by a factor of 1,000,000, and then has them compete with each other. This natural selection process creates highly specific antibodies for the virus
Image credits: wattnurt
#9
TIL Marvel used to issue paychecks to their creatives with vouchers on the back saying that the one signing it renounced all rights to whatever they created. They couldn't sign the paycheck without also signing the voucher.
Image credits: BlastproofFridge
#10
TIL that limping was a fad in Victorian England. Young women admired the genuine limp of Alexandra of Denmark, bride of the Prince of Wales. So, women went around fake limping, dubbed the "Alexandra Limp." Shopkeepers at the time sold pairs of shoes with one high heel and one low.
Image credits: Miskatonica
#11
TIL that Walter Breuning stopped smoking cigars at age 103 because they became too expensive. At age 108, he began smoking cigars again after receiving a lot of gifts of cigars. He ultimately ended up living to age 114.5 and was the second-last verified surviving man born in the 1800s
Image credits: [deleted]
#12
TIL NASA's longest serving female employee since January 1958, Sue Finley, has been an engineer and programmer for space missions since Explorer 1, for missions to the Moon, Sun, all the planets and many other solar system bodies, and recipient of NASA's Exceptional Public Service Medal.
Image credits: Polar_Roid
#13
TIL scientists "hacked" the genetic code of brewer's yeast to produce cannabis compounds. They inserted genes from cannabis plants into the yeast's genetic code which allowed it to produce CBD and THC. Their end goal is to allow large scale cannabinoid production without cultivation.
Image credits: ZamboniJunction
#14
TIL that in the 70s, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tried creating its own artificial coral reef by dumping some 2 million used tires into the ocean. It became an environmental disaster, naturally, but also a military training exercise when divers had to retrieve the tires (almost one by one).
Image credits: helmsmanfresh
#15
TIL that James K. Polk is the only US president who pledged to serve only one term during his campaign. He was known for fulfilling all his major promises and died 3 months after his term ended, making his retirement the shortest. He is also the only speaker of the house to be elected as president
Image credits: LogicBomb69
#16
TIL Hours after being adopted from an animal shelter, 21-pound cat Pudding saved her owners life. While suffering a diabetic seizure, Amy Jung's newly acquired cat pounced his weight on her chest and began swatting her face and biting her nose until she gained consciousness.
Image credits: LazyFlamingosss
#17
TIL that Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, sold the series as a pure entertainment vehicle due to censorship he experienced with previous projects that would delve into controversial social/political issues. The Twilight Zone tackled the same issues but veiled in science fiction and fantasy
Image credits: WigboldCrumb
#18
TIL that the worlds rarest tree, Kaikōmako native to New Zealand, has been rescued from extinction after 40 years of trying to get the very last female tree in the world to fruit again
Image credits: Thyriel81
#19
TIL about one in every 1500 people have something called Voluntarily Piloerection - the ability to consciously give themselves goosebumps. The phenomenon both perplexes and intrigues neurophysiologists by defying conventional understanding of how the unconscious nervous system operates
Image credits: operator139
#20
TIL in 1879 it was estimated the Oxford English Dictionary to take 10 years for completion, but in five years they'd only reached the word "Ant". After crowdsourcing readers to help it was completed 44 years later. The publishers now estimate it would take a single person 120 years to just type it
Image credits: WhileFalseRepeat
#21
TIL Richard Simmons would wake up at 4AM to call up to 40 people who are isolated, alone, or needed empathy. Some credited Richard Simmons for saving their lives
Image credits: KomputerIdiat
#22
TIL Police in Finland believe they have caught a car thief with the help of a dead mosquito they noticed inside an abandoned vehicle. Police saw that the mosquito had recently sucked blood and decided to send the insect for analysis, and the DNA matched the man on the Police Register.
Image credits: UnironicThatcherite
#23
TIL a new kind of artificial cornea successfully restored sight in a 78-year-old man. The surgery uses a lens which can more easily replace damaged tissue in a simpler surgery. Immediately after the surgery, the patient was able to recognize family members and read numbers on an eye chart.
Image credits: ZamboniJunction
#24
Til a CIA intelligence officer working undercover in Uganda became a minor celebrity as the lead singer of a popular local band known as the "Kampala Jazz All-Stars"
Image credits: delano1998
#25
TIL the King's doctor Johann Struensee seized power for over a year in 18th century Denmark. He managed to abolish slavery, abolish censorship of the press, and have an affair with the Queen before being ousted and executed in 1772
Image credits: HoneyGlazedBadger
#26
TIL Nearly 70% of icelanders has costco membership and there's only one costco in the country
Image credits: Jeremy_Martin
#27
Today i learned Gadaffi invited 500 Italian models to a party, only to give them an hour lecture on Islam and a copy of the Qur'an each
Image credits: FuzzyIntroduction
#28
TIL in 1985, Takahashi Meijin (real name Takahashi Toshiyuki) became a celebrity in Japan when he managed the feat of pressing a button on a video game controller 16 times in one second on television. It's still a world record.
Image credits: Mister_Silk
#29
TIL that ravens and wolves have formed a mutually beneficial relationship out in the wild. Ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals so that the wolves will then open up the carcass and leave the scraps for the ravens once they're finished.
Image credits: CockGoblinReturns
#30
TIL that while filming Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole found riding camels so uncomfortable that he bought a piece of foam rubber at a local market in Jordan and added it to his saddle. Extras began to do the same, and local Bedouins nicknamed O'Toole "Father of the Sponge"
Image credits: OliverTate2
#31
TIL over 8,000 pieces of music were secretly created in Nazi concentration camps; including symphonies, operas, and songs scribbled on everything from food wrappings to potato sacks. One prisoner composed an entire symphony on toilet paper using the charcoal given to him as dysentery medicine
Image credits: WhileFalseRepeat
#32
TIL that in 1967 the Soviet cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov died in an accident on the Soyuz 1 mission, making him the first human to die in a space flight. Komarov was aware of the faulty design of the shuttle and specifically asked the authorities to give him an open casket funeral after the mission
Image credits: LogicBomb69
#33
TIL that Breaking Bad character Mike Ehrmantraut was created because Bob Odenkirk (Saul Goodman) was unavailable for one of the episodes of Breaking Bad as he had to shoot for How I met your mother
Image credits: prasiptasp
#34
TIL that Facebook conducted a study where they intentionally manipulated almost 700,000 users’ emotions without their knowledge or permission
Image credits: Contrariwise2
#35
TIL that Beverly Hills, California is named after Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, which was named after the town Beverley in Yorkshire England, which came from the name "Beverlac" in the 10th century, meaning "beaver lake," because of all the beavers in the nearby river
Image credits: Ambrosem123
#36
TIL a young Tina Fey provided voices for a pinball machine called Medieval Madness in 1997 as two princesses, the dialogue for the game was written by future 30 Rock co-star Scott Adsit
Image credits: LoneRangersBand
#37
TIL Friends Thomas Cook and Joseph Feeney shook hands in 1992, swearing if either one won the Powerball jackpot, they would split the winnings. Well the power of friendship and a handshake has paid off: 28 years later Tom won €22 million and split the winnings with his friend
Image credits: PawNoetic
#38
TIL when, in 1993, the US postal service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Elvis Presley's 58th birthday, fans mailed envelopes with first-day issues of the stamp to fictitious addresses so that they would receive their letters back, marked with the words "return to sender".
Image credits: Doll_Tow_Jet-ski
#39
TIL The actor who played Boss Hogg on Dukes of Hazard went to Columbia and Yale, spoke 5 languages, and was a counterintelligence officer during the Korean War
Image credits: avgGamerRobb
#40
TIL that Gaddafi had a serious obsession with Condoleezza Rice, showering her with over $200,000 in gifts and having a famous local composer write a song for her called “Black Flower in the White House”
Image credits: shhmurdashewrote
#41
TIL that each year, 22,000 pounds of dust from the Sahara Desert is carried by air currents to the Amazon Rainforest where it is an important source of phosphorus for tropical plants
Image credits: EtOHMartini
#42
TIL that, in 2014, scientists found a giant 30,000 year old virus in Siberian permafrost. The virus, Pithovirus sibericum, was still infectious and began killing amoebas. This raised concerns that melting or drilling arctic ice could unearth previously undiscovered pathogenic viruses
Image credits: WouldbeWanderer
#43
TIL Jack Black desperately wanted to use a Led Zeppelin song in School Of Rock but the band was notoriously reluctant to let their music be used in films. The director suggested having Black record a personal plea to the band members, in front of a crowd of 1,000 extras. It worked
Image credits: holyfruits
#44
TIL of Elouise Cobell (“Yellow Bird Woman”) who founded the first Native American owned bank. As treasurer of the Blackfeet Nation she tried to resolve accounting discrepancies regarding leases on Indian Land which led to a $3.4 Billion dollar class action settlement against the US government.
Image credits: intentsman
#45
TIL that between 1978 and 1980, Michel Lotito ate an entire Cessna 150 airplane piece by piece. He is estimated to have eaten nine tons of metal over his lifetime, for which he was awarded a brass plaque by the Guinness Book of World Records. (He also ate the award.)
Image credits: IHad360K_KarmaDammit
#46
TIL Despite his scientific background and immeasurable contributions to promoting science to the public, Carl Sagan's nomination was rejected from the National Academy of Sciences leading to the Sagan Effect where popular scientists in the media are seen as less knowledgeable than their peers.
Image credits: Braincoater
#47
TIL more than six billion different knot types have been identified by mathematicians and scientists since the 1800s.
Image credits: goatsgreetings
#48
TIL that, in 2017, the British band Muse invited ticket-holders for an upcoming gig in London to vote online for 10 songs that they wanted to be added to the set list. Fans immediately flooded the poll with votes for 15-year-old B-sides and tracks that the band had never played live before
Image credits: InmostJoy
#49
TIL that not everyone can unfocus their eyes whenever they want to. It's accomplished by having the ability to relax the ciliary muscles in your eyes, which causes them to lose their focusing powers
Image credits: nekosakomako
#50
TIL in 1920, candy store owner Christian Kent Nelson, unable to decide between ice cream and chocolate bars, invented an ice cream brick with chocolate coating. He secured an agreement with local chocolate producer Russell C. Stover to mass-produce them under the new trademarked name "Eskimo Pie"
Image credits: WouldbeWanderer
#51
TIL According to a survey, 43% of American Cardiologists are overweight to obese.
Image credits: sigm_o
#52
TIL that a study conducted in 195 countries, over a 26-year period, concluded that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. The researchers admitted that moderate drinking may protect against heart disease, but found that the risk of cancer and other diseases outweighs these protections
Image credits: malalatargaryen
#53
TIL REM's song "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" is about the mugging of Dan Rather. His attacker kept repeating "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" as he kicked Rather. The case was solved when the attacker stormed NBC studios 11 years later to find out the frequency used to "beam signals to his brain".
Image credits: oceanicplatform
#54
TIL William Wrigley, founder of Wrigley’s Gum, invented direct mail marketing. In 1915 he mailed a pack of gum to every person in the phone directory in the United States.
Image credits: 02K30C1
#55
TIL DMX avoided a maximum jail term for tax fraud when his lawyer played his song "Slippin'" for the judge in order to show X's struggles and how bad his upbringing was.
Image credits: Hot_Dog_Cobble
#56
TIL that our own stomach has to constantly secrete mucus to stop itself from being digested by our own stomach acid. Without that mucus, our stomach acid would eat through our stomach’s lining.
Image credits: Stalwart9
#57
TIL that Henry VIII was sometimes called "Old Coppernose." He issued debased coins to fund wars and one coin was mostly copper with a thin layer of silver on top. The coin had a portrait of Henry and his projecting nose caused the silver to wear off first exposing the copper underneath.
Image credits: marmorset
#58
TIL about Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete with a leg that was amputated due to cancer. He ran across Canada for about 143 days and ran about 5373 kilometers(3339 miles) in order to raise both money and awareness for cancer
Image credits: Meme_Inhaler_Boi
#59
TIL an Australian beer company had to change the design of its beer bootle because male jewel beetles were mating with the bottle thinking it was a female. This odd behaviour was observed in 1983 by two biologists
Image credits: Dev-il_Jyu
#60
TIL: Before he was caught, Charles Ponzi the namesake of the Ponzi scheme successfully sued a newspaper for libel and won $500,000 in damages after it suggested there was no way Ponzi could legally deliver such high returns in a short period of time
Image credits: Fifth_Down
#61
TIL that Sonny and Cher at the lowest point of their career started a lounge act that was so depressing the audience would heckle them. Cher started heckling them back. Sonny would reprimand her and then Cher would heckle and berate Sonny. This became the basis for their TV variety show years later.
Image credits: WigboldCrumb
#62
TIL There is an exact scale replica of the Parthenon of Athens. Located in Nashville, the building was originally constructed of brick, plaster and wood slats in 1897 as part of an exhibition celebrating 100 years of Tennessee. In 1920, it was rebuilt with durable materials becoming an exact copy.
#63
TIL that Bill Hamilton developed modern jetboats since no existing boats could navigate the shallow, fast flowing rivers of New Zealand. He took his boats to the USA for demonstrations amidst criticism from the media. In 1960 his boats became the first and only boats to travel up the grand canyon.
Image credits: LogicBomb69
#64
TIL that famous anarchist Peter Kropotkin once escaped from a Russian prison, evading searchers by going to one of St. Petersburg's fanciest restaurants with his friends, where the authorities wouldn't think to look for an anarchist
Image credits: Ganesha811
#65
TIL Thomas Midgley Jr, who helped invent leaded petrol, once poured the lead additive over his hands and inhaled its fumes to prove it was safe. He was later diagnosed with lead poisoning... for the second time.
Image credits: NoHandBananaNo
#66
TIL That in the 1930s, the US spent $300.000 ($5,5 million adjusted for inflation) to built massive car with the goal to cross Antarctica. Only to discover upon arrival that the tyres didn't work in the snow, and the whole thing was abandoned after 140 km (driven in reverse)
Image credits: ArcticBiologist
#67
TIL Spiders Eat Up to 800 Million Tons of Prey Each Year, nearly twice the amount by weight of meat humans consume each year.
Image credits: mr-blue
#68
TIL in 2010 a gunman took people hostage inside the Discovery Channel HQ. His reasoning was because he hated the company's shows such as "Kate Plus 8" because they promote population growth and its environmental programming because it did little to save the planet.
Image credits: SkinnyDan00
#69
TIL Jane Stanford, founder of Stanford University, was murdered by strychnine poisoning. The president of the university at the time, David Starr Jordan, was suspected of covering up the murder. The killer was never found.
Image credits: Tangerine_Darter
#70
TIL that the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" were inspired by the CPR doll Resusci Anne, a dummy used to teach people how to properly perform CPR. Trainees are taught to ask "Annie, are you OK?" while performing CPR on the dummy.
Image credits: derstherower
#71
TIL that over the last decade, there have been at least 15 cases of athletes who have died from over-hydration during sporting events. Too much fluid consumption can cause serious health issues by diluting the sodium in the blood, which creates a swelling of the brain and lungs
Image credits: malalatargaryen
#72
TIL a married couple was hired by the MLB from 1981-2004 to draw up each season's baseball schedule. They were responsible for scheduling 2,430 games played by 30 teams.
Image credits: _partyof5_
#73
TIL that the most mass a planet can have is ~10-13x the mass of Jupiter. After this point, it's own sheer gravity begins to cause nuclear fusion and the body is classified as a brown dwarf (also called a failed star).
Image credits: Saziol
#74
TIL in 1851 because it was too expensive to import ice from the United States and Norway, an Australian man invented an ice-making machine and its first application, aside from making ice, was to cool beer. He was James Harrison, "the father of refrigeration"
Image credits: Brutal_Deluxe
#75
TIL flies find it hard to land on striped surfaces, & zebras suffer far less from flies, which carry deadly diseases. Zebra stripes are more pronounced in environments that favour horseflies
Image credits: ArmpitNostril
#76
TIL that France's second-most popular sandwich is just ham, slices of butter and a baguette
Image credits: fiftythreestudio
#77
TIL Flea and Dave Navarro from RHCP played bass and guitar for Alanis Morrisette’s song “You Oughta Know”
Image credits: Flupox
#78
TIL The intensity of sound is measured in decibels (dB), the decibel scale is logarithmic. Basically a 40dB sound is not twice as loud as 20dB one, but a hundred times louder. Also one alarm clock ringing at 70dB, two alarm clocks ringing together don’t hit 140dB on scale but measure 73dB
Image credits: twoshillings
#79
TIL that over 200 bird species including the Northern Cardinals, wild turkeys and Baltimore Orioles use a method of pest control called "anting." They take an ant in their beak and wipe their tail feathers in order to deter lice. The ants release formic acid that the birds utilize routinely
Image credits: BrownBirdDiaries
#80
TIL of the Comanche medicine man Kwihnai Tosabitu (White Eagle), who told his warriors that his medicine made them invincible to the white man's bullets. When this medicine failed and they were massacred in the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874, he was renamed Isatai'i (Coyote Vagina)
Image credits: Cody_97K
#81
TIL cannabis is invasive in North America, referred to as 'feral cannabis,' 'wild marijuana,' and 'ditch weed' when it grows in the wild. Seeds can lie dormant for 7-10 years and the wild plant can damage farm equipment. Feral cannabis is cultivated in North Korea
Image credits: drak0bsidian
#82
TIL the FBI has a very specific definition for 'serial killer': someone who has intentionally killed at least 3 people, but not all at once. There must be so-called ‘cooling off’ periods between each murder.
Image credits: iajzz 6
#83
TIL as a result of M. Rust flying a Cessna from Finland through the USSR's most secure airspace and landing in Red Square, the soviet military had its largest purge of officers since Stalin's Great Purge. As a result, Gorbachev was able to implement reforms easier, with much of the old guard gone
Image credits: Nite01007
#84
TIL that Santa Fe, New Mexico is the oldest capital city in North America, founded (1607) over a decade before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock (1620)
Image credits: Setzer67
#85
TIL the disclaimer "the characters depicted here are fictitious and any similarity to actual persons is purely coincidental" originates from a lawsuit brought on by the wife of the man that killed Rasputin, after MGM made a movie insinuating she, the Princess of Russia, had been seduced by Rasputin
Image credits: camdoodlebop
#86
TIL that Vietnam War medics formed the core of early EMS. Their training and experience were needed, as many first responders in the 60s were undertrained funeral home workers. So, those wounded in combat actually had a better chance of survival than those getting into car accidents in the US.
Image credits: SomeGuy671
#87
TIL Both Mozart and Michael Jackson were born the seventh child in a very musical family. Both missed out on a normal childhood, spending the entire time immersed in a punishing regime of practicing, touring and performing, all imposed by a strict father
Image credits: yaboodooect
#88
TIL that in 1970, a sniper shot a semi-trailer carrying 20 tons of TNT creating a 30' deep and 50' wide crater in the middle of the interstate
Image credits: reallifepixel
#89
TIL a school teacher named Jeff Kirby competed on Jeopardy in 1999, and then again in 2009. This is a violation of Jeopardy rules, and any winnings he earned in 2009 were nullified. He even wore the same tie
Image credits: Chengweiyingji
#90
TIL that in 2005 a Russian private was forced to squat for four hours as part of a brutal army hazing ritual and the lack of blood flow resulted in his genitals and legs requiring amputation sparking public outcry in Russia
Image credits: mysteryconfidential
#91
TIL every current European monarch is descended from John William Friso, Dutch Prince of Orange from 1702 to 1711
Image credits: Guardax
#92
TIL Tchaikovsky hated to conduct by his own admission. He became obsessed with the fear that his head was going to fall off while he conducted. In 1868, when Tchaikovsky conducted his own Dances of the Hay Maidens, he held his head in place with his left hand while he conducted with his right
Image credits: CyberSibey
#93
TIL when Japan's first railway was introduced, the USA, France, and the UK bid to build the system, with the UK winning. The railways they set up were left-side running, and that was later adopted by Japanese cars. Today, Japan is one of the only non-Commonwealth countries with left-side driving
Image credits: malalatargaryen
#94
TIL Independent filmmakers fled New Jersey around 1915 to California, both for the advantageous climate and to get away from Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patent Company, who's heavy handed demands included the use of Mob thugs to demand payments on cameras, projectors and the films themselves
Image credits: Polar_Roid
#95
TIL of the Chinese submarine Changcheng 361. After disappearing while submerged, she was later found when fishermen spotted a periscope above the surface. An engine failure had suffocated the entire crew; the ghost submarine had spent ten days drifting aimlessly below the waves.
Image credits: stratohornet
#96
TIL in 2012, Demi Lovato did an MTV documentary about her sobriety and how she overcame addiction. 5 years later, she admitted she was on cocaine while filming it
Image credits: iajzz
#97
TIL that in 1949, Gallup polled Americans on what scientific advances they thought would happen by the year 1999. 88% believed cancer would be cured, and 63% believed planes would be nuclear powered. Only 15% thought a man would walk on the moon
Image credits: thalesian
#98
TIL that in 1978 Alice Cooper donated $27,000 to help restore the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. He sponsored an O in memory of his friend, Groucho Marx.
Image credits: effit_consultant
#99
TIL about "Token Suckers" - Back when the NYC subway system used tokens people called "token suckers" would jam token slots with paper and suck out the tokens with their mouth. to prevent this, some attendants would sprinkle chili powder in the slots
Image credits: Stradivarius
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