In this hectic world, there’s often not much time left for ourselves. And while amid all the chaos we rarely forget to feed our bodies (and if you do, you’re having a burnout!), we often fail to think of replenishing our mind.
But the good news is, it's never too late to pump that brain muscle! So in order to nourish our curious inner child hiding deep behind first-world problems, we are about to feast on some ‘Today I Learned’ bits and pieces of information from the subreddit by the same name.
From things like how a Titanic survivor who spent 6 hours waist-deep in freezing water later won the Wimbledon Men's Doubles in 1920, and a Costa Rican fisherman becoming best friends with a crocodile after he treated it from a headshot, these are things you just don’t learn in books.
And if you’re still hungry for some more trivia facts, make sure to check out our previous TIL posts here, here and here.
#1
While only 9.7% of Americans don't wear seatbelts, 47% of those who die in car crashes were not wearing seat belts.
Image credits: ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
#2
Masks on airplanes generate oxygen by triggering a chemical reaction. If pressure in the cabin is disturbed and masks drop, tugging the mask causes a firing pin to ignite a small explosion in an ‘O2 candle’ where Sodium Chlorate and Potassium Percholorate combine to make Oxygen gas.
Image credits: Squaragus_Asparagus
#3
Norway hires shepherds from Nepal to build paths in the Norwegian mountains. They have completed over 300 projects, and their pay for one summer equals 30 years of work in Nepal.
Image credits: Prebenutsug
#4
A local fisherman in Costa Rica nursed a crocodile back to health after it had been shot in the head, and released the reptile back to its home. The next day, the man discovered “Pocho” had followed him home and was sleeping on the man’s porch. For 20 years Pocho became part of the man’s family.
Image credits: Elder-The-Wise
#5
The satanic temple offers academic scholarships to elementary through college students.
Image credits: VibinVentricles
#6
American rapper Jay-Z stabbed a man at an album release party, with a 5 inch blade in the stomach, after rumors the man was behind the bootlegging of one of his albums. He later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, accepting a 3 year probation sentence.
Image credits: pickycheestickeater
#7
When the USS West Virginia battleship was finally salvaged 6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbour, a calendar was found in an air tight room where 3 trapped sailors had marked off 16 days until they died
Image credits: TobySqueaker
#8
In 1966, Bill Cosby tried to get 16 year old folk singer Janis Ian blacklisted from tv because he thought she was a lesbian and therefore unsuited for family entertainment.
Image credits: Ice_Burn
#9
Richard Norris Williams was a Titanic Survivor who spent over 6 hours waist-deep in freezing water - after rescue doctors wanted to amputate both his legs - he refused and went on to win the Wimbledon Men's Doubles in 1920.
Image credits: TheGuvnor247
#10
In 2018, a woman accidentally paid a Swiss cafe $7709 for coffee because she entered her PIN number as the dollar amount. When she called to get the money back, nobody answered because the cafe had filed for bankruptcy.
Image credits: iajzz
#11
A 59 yr. old woman's smartwatch correctly recognized a tachycardia, alerting her to seek help. She was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation and treated, reducing her chances of suffering a severe stroke. In 2017 the FDA approved the use of this technology to be used for medical purposes.
Image credits: SingLikeTinaTurner
#12
Having resulted in 77 people dying in 9 years, Australia's horses and cows are deadlier than its snakes and spiders. Kangaroos killed 60 in that time, while snakes and lizards have only killed 23. Spiders haven't killed anyone since 1979
Image credits: rosetoesnose
#13
There was an infamous game of roulette played in Monte-Carlo on August 18, 1913, where the ball fell on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers lost millions expecting it to land on red along the way, making "the gambler's fallacy" famous.
Image credits: douggold11
#14
The germs that cause Strep Throat tear apart red blood cells and then dress themselves in the debris. This disguise prevents the immune system from attacking them. Mice survived infection by Mutant Strep lacking that ability, and were then more resistant to infection by Normal Strep germs.
Image credits: ocdumbos
#15
In 1995 a policy known as “the Wall" was created. It discouraged info sharing between the CIA and FBI, playing a critical role in the inability to stop 9/11. It got so bad agents played a CD with Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" into the phone as they were told their access was denied.
Image credits: HotFlamingo7676
#16
Chemists have developed two plant-based plastic alternatives to the current fossil fuel made plastics. Using chemical recycling instead of mechanical recycling, 96% of the initial material can be recovered.
Image credits: what_is_the_deal_
#17
For the film Stargate, Kurt Russell was paid twice his going rate because he was the only actor at the time to have "zero unlikability" in a global poll.
Image credits: bawledannephat
#18
Arthur Tudor, the older brother of Henry VIII, exchanged letters with his fiancée, Catherine of Aragon, in Latin. When they met in person they were unable to communicate however, as they had mastered different pronunciations of the language.
Image credits: KingReffots
#19
In 1996, a Hong Kong ganster "Big spender" kidnapped the son of the richest man in Asia and demanded a ransom of $160 million for his return. After receiving the money, the gangster later phoned up and asked for advice on how to invest the money.
Image credits: D4nk1e
#20
Jean de Selys Longchamps was a Belgian aristocrat who flew with the RAF during World War II. After learning that his father had been murdered by the Nazis, he flew to Brussels and machine gunned the Gestapo headquarters. He was demoted for insubordination but also awarded a medal for heroism
Image credits: Rob-With-One-B
#21
Taxi Driver (1976) was made with a low budget of only $1.9 million. Robert De Niro & Cybill Shepherd received only $35k for the film while Scorsese received only $65k. Despite the low budget, it went on to receive 4 nominations at the 1977 Academy Awards.
Image credits: MarineKingPrime_
#22
A British man was surprised at being urgently contacted by the NHS about his health, when they calculated his BMI as being 28,000. They'd written his 6'2" height as being 6.2cm tall
Image credits: rosetoesnose
#23
The oldest living elephant is Vatsala, living at an Elephant camp in a Tiger Reserve. At 105, she has lived for more than double the age of an average Asian Elephant. Though loosing her vision to Cataract, she has been able to navigate using her trunk and support from her herd members
Image credits: RealityCheck18
#24
Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras was a French aristocrat whose last words were "I see that you have made three spelling mistakes", upon reading his death sentence warrant.
Image credits: krmc-olrak
#25
The Tour de France has a team that drives each days route and turns genitals graffitied on the road into owls and butterflies.
Image credits: losimagic
#26
Thomas Linley was called "The English Mozart". Mozart called him "a true genius" and said "he would have been one of the greatest", but he drowned in a lake at age 22 and most of compositions were lost or burned in a fire.
Image credits: janmayeno
#27
A 64-year-old manager at a French defense manufacturer was gifted a ride as a passenger in a military jet but he failed to secure himself properly in the cockpit and at one point tried to to hold onto the ejector handle, accidentally activating it and ejecting himself mid-flight.
Image credits: f_GOD
#28
River Phoenix died right before he was to film his role as the interviewer in Interview with the Vampire. The part was recast with Christian Slater, who donated his earnings to Earth Save and Earth Trust, two of Phoenix's favorite charities.
Image credits: thesefallentrees
#29
Otters have the densest fur of any known mammal, with density of up to 1 million hairs per square inch with a large male sometimes having as many hairs a 800 million on it's entire body#30
Jeremy Meeks' mugshot was so hot it got him a modeling contract while he was still in jail. He served 13 months in jail and walked in NY Fashion Week a year later. He also walked in Milan Fashion Week, helped to launch a fashion line, acted, & more. All within 5 years of his release.#31
While Austria derives its name from the Germanic for East, Australia gets its name from the latin for South#32
That there were only 66 years between the first ever powered flight and the moon landing. The Wright Brothers successfully flew a plane for the first time in 1903; in 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.#33
The Seiryu Miharashi station in Japan is a train station with no entrances or exits, no roads or paths to connect it, all it serves is a platform for the train passengers to step out and admire the valley#34
The same enzyme that makes apples and potatoes turn brown is also responsible for tanning in humans.#35
Actor Gary Busey caused delays filming a movie when he refused to be in a scene set in Heaven, claiming it looked nothing like the 'real' Heaven he had seen during a near-death experience. When another actor said they too had seen Heaven, and Busey's description was wrong, the two came to blows#36
Introduction of iodized salt in 1920s increased national IQ average by 3.5 points in a decade and in certain states which had high levels of iodine deficiency previously, saw avg IQ increase as much as 15 points within the first decade.#37
Abraham Lincoln had a high-pitched voice described as shrill, sharp, and like a whistle. However, while unpleasant, these qualities also helped his voice carry long distances. This proved to be advantageous in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates when everyone in a crowd could hear him speaking.
Image credits: WhileFalseRepeat
#38
Two thieves in New Zealand accidently stole a box full of extremely smelly "stoat anal gland oil", mistaking it for drug-making materials.#39
In the original Star Wars due to budget, someone scoured old antique shops looking for props and came across an old flash camera. The flash handle became the iconic lightsaber.#40
In 1990 the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was robbed of 13 paintings worth a total of 500 million dollars, none of them have been found, and the museum is still offering offering a $10 million reward (the largest reward by a museum in history)
Image credits: TheLadyEve
#41
The Smithsonian Museum has over 3 million 2D and 3D images that anybody can use for free for any commercial purpose.
Image credits: JonTheBon
#42
Florida had brought in 2 Irula tribesmen from India to catch the invasive Burmese pythons. When 1000 hunters were able to manage catching just 106 snakes, the duo caught 27 snakes in just 4 weeks, including a 16 ft long female.
Image credits: RealityCheck18
#43
TIL in WWII, Major Digby Tatham-Warter led a bayonet charge while wielding an umbrella and wearing a bowler hat. He later disabled a German armored car with his umbrella. When saving the chaplain from enemy fire, he said “Don’t worry about the bullets, I’ve got an umbrella”.
Image credits: lollipop283
#44
Bronze medal Olympian, UFC champion and WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey used to be a moderator on a Pokemon forum, in her bio it said "I also spend a lot of time doing judo... right now I'm ranked #1 under 20, if you don't believe me look it up"
Image credits: USDXBS
#45
In 1927, during the worst flood in the history of the Mississippi River Valley, Herbert Hoover and the Red Cross set up "concentration camps" comprised of African Americans forced to work at gunpoint on the levee, and created a media campaign to cover it up.
Image credits: TheGreatGazoo22
#46
in the original ending of the Inca-inspired animated film "The Emperor's New Groove", the titular Emperor demolishes a rainforest to create a theme park. Sting – who spent 20 years defending the rights of indigenous people – threatened to leave the project unless the ending was changed.
Image credits: shakensparco
#47
Helen Keller was accepted to Harvard in 1900. Mark Twain introduced her to Standard Oil magnate, Henry Rogers, who paid for her education. And in 1904, she became the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree.
Image credits: MarineKingPrime_
#48
In east Africa, movies are often watched with a "VJ" or "video joker" who provides live narration over the movie for translation, contextualization or comedy purposes.
Image credits: kutuup1989
#49
Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived president, the longest-retired president, the first president to live forty years after their inauguration, and the first to reach the age of 95.
Image credits: Soocas
#50
Suddam Hussein burned his son Uday's car collection, consisting of hundreds of rare, luxury cars, as punishment for Uday's shooting at a dinner party, which killed several people and injured Saddam's half-brother.
Image credits: BamboozledBigTIme
#51
Princess Alexandria of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a glass grand piano when she was a child that could shatter at any time — and she was not the only royal with this delusion.#52
For the first Superman movie, producers wanted Christopher Reeve to wear fake muscles under his suit but he refused. He instead went on an intense training program adding 30lbs of muscle to his thin 189lb frame. He got so big they had to reshoot earlier scenes as they didnt match later shots#53
Ted Bundy scored 39/40 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist which is the highest recorded score of any serial killer.#54
Whales create the longest-lasting songs in the animal kingdom with one session lasting up to 23 hours and the sound traveling for thousands of miles (estimated to be more than 6000km). At up to 180 decibels, it can also match the loudness of a jet plane.#55
The guinness world record for the longest continuous film shoot is held by Stanley Kubrick's 1999 erotic drama 'Eyes Wide Shut'. The filming took 400 days and ended in June 1998, with the post production going on till March 1999. Kubrick died 6 days after sending the final cut to the studio#56
In 1930, Chandra, an Indian student showed mathematically that massive stars explode into a supernova and then collapse down into neutron stars,or black holes. Before that Scientists assumed that all stars collapsed into white dwarfs when they died. Chandra's theory was ridiculed as 'absurd'#57
Architect Alejandro Echeverri was approached by the mayor of Medellin, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, to revitalize the city. He focused on building in the poorest areas first to bring people and infrastructure into these neighborhoods. Crime dropped substantially.
Image credits: kevlarbuns
#58
Dyscalculia, or "math dyslexia" (the difficulty to comprehend arithmetic, understand numbers, and perform calculations) affects up to 60% of people with ADD and dyslexia#59
The former tallest woman in the world, Sandy Allen (7'7 or 2.31m), never married saying that she was "an oldfashioned girl" and would not date a man shorter than her.#60
Ferrari merchandise (tee shirts, hats, sunglasses, key chains and anything that projects their association with the brand), accounts for $2.5 billion in sales each year, slightly more than the revenue from selling cars.#61
Charles Simonyi was the first billionaire to go to space. Simonyi, a software architect and early Microsoft employee, paid a total of $60 million for two trips to the International Space Station. He entered orbit and spent a total of 4 weeks in space.#62
The Himalayan 'Skeleton Lake': a lake at an altitude of about 5000 m, known for the hundreds of ancient human skeletons, the remains belonging to very different eras and to different distinct groups (Indian, South Asian and Mediterranean), whose cause of death remains a mystery though.#63
Early puberty is a hereditary genetic condition. In one writer’s case, it meant growing pubic hair when he was only 2: “I Was a 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body”
Image credits: valandsend
#64
There is a religion in Vietnam called Caodaism. Its followers believe in a single god who sent many prophets. Some of these prophets include Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Muḥammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, and Sun Yat-sen. It even has a Holy See and Pope figure!
Image credits: RemoteStretch6
#65
When the 1924 New York chess tournament players visited the Bronx zoo in between games, Polish grandmaster Saviely Tartakower consulted an Orangutan named Susan regarding the opening he should play the next day. He played 1.b4 in the game which later became known as the orangutan opening.#66
The city of Carmel, IN has the most roundabouts per city in the US, with a total of 138. Since regular intersections were replaced with roundabouts, the number of accidents here has reduced by 40%.
Image credits: CanadianW
#67
Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl set out to prove that ancient Egyptians could have crossed the Atlantic by boat. Thor left Morocco in a papyrus boat which was lost for a time and the subject to a UN search and rescue. However, the Ra II arrived in Barbados 57 days after its launch in 1970.
Image credits: Zoltarr777
#68
The founder or Texas Roadhouse Restaurants, W. Kent Taylor, has no ties at all to the state of Texas and originally had dreams of opening a Colorado-themed eatery.
Image credits: AFKTexan619
#69
When Wu-Tang Clan's debut album achieved commercial success, one of the group's members, Ol' Dirty Bastard, was filmed cashing in a wellfare check. This was because ODB had not yet filed his taxes, so the then-recent income did not impact his eligibility.
Image credits: YourOwnBiggestFan
#70
There are fossils of marine life found on top of Himalayan mountains.#71
In 1991, a plane crashed after an inspector from afternoon shift started repair by unscrewing 30 screws, but failed to pass the information when changing shifts. The plane then fell from 3 km height, killing everyone on board.#72
George H. W. Bush hated broccoli, and his frequent comments triggered a fruit and vegetable association to deliver 10 tons of broccoli to the White House.#73
The inside of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is completely empty#74
There is a breed of horse called the Yakutian that is native to Siberia. Bulkier than other horse breeds, it has a extremely long hair for its coat and can withstand temperatures as low a -70C (-94F)#75
Eric Money is the only person to ever score for both teams in an NBA game. Due to an officiating error by a referee, an NBA game between the Sixers and Nets in 1978 had to be replayed beginning in the middle of the game. Money was traded from the Nets to the Sixers during the span between games.
Image credits: derstherower
#76
The School of the Americas has had more graduates become dictators than any other school in history#77
The closest living relative of whales is the hippopotamus, they split around 40 million years ago#78
The country of Scotland only has 7 cities. Everything else is classified as a village or town.#79
Norway discovered oil in its country 40 years ago. Knowing the oil would eventually run out, they chose to invest it in a sovereign wealth fund. It is one of the most profitable funds in the world - valued at over $1.3 trillion - enough to self sustain the county for many years.#80
Hisashi Ouchi was a victim of a 1999 Japanese nuclear plant disaster. Radiation burns caused him to have nearly zero white blood cells. Despite his pleas, he was kept alive for research purposes. After 83 days in the hospital, he died of organ failure.#81
Andreas Mihavecz holds the Guinness World Record for surviving the longest without any food or liquids, after being mistakenly brought into custody and forgotten about in his holding cell#82
The Burj Khalifa is so tall that the sun can still be seen for several minutes after it has set at ground level. This has led Dubai clerics to rule that those living above the 80th floor should wait 2 additional minutes to break their Ramadan fast.#83
TGI Fridays exists because the founder was single and wanted to create a place to meet women#84
The Sahara isn't permanently a desert and for several hundred thousand years has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000 year cycle. This is caused by the precession of the Earth's axis as it rotates around the Sun which changes the location of the North African Monsoon.#85
A bee creates lift by clapping its wings together above its back. When the wings separate, air fills the void, and the downward swinging wings generate lift. The failure to account for this is the basis for the myth that bees shouldn’t be able to fly.#86
In 1695 the English parliament passed a law to tax all bachelors over the age of 25. The Bachelor Tax was later abolished in 1706.from Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3iIyfu2
via Boredpanda
