The day can be gloomy, hard, long, or totally irrelevant, but if you can learn something on that day, even the simplest fact, then your day is complete. And there’s no better place to do that than our beloved corner of Reddit, the ‘Today I Learned’ community that has people sharing interesting things they learned on the internet.
And keeping in mind what a vast place this world wide web actually is, there’s always something new to discover! Some things are totally useless yet eyebrow-raising, others are seriously game-changing, so there’s a little for everyone to get their brain cells in shape.
Scroll down, upvote your favorites, and be sure to check our previous TIL posts here, here, and here.
#1
TIL the longest surgery ever recorded was performed in 2001 by a team of 20 doctors; it took 103 hours (more than four days) to complete.
Image credits: electricmaster23
#2
TIL that tigers are nearly invisible to their prey, who see orange as green. Tigers are orange because mammals can’t produce green fur, and orange was the next best thing.
Image credits: Iwantmorelife
#3
TIL some people suffer a "weekend migraine" or "let-down headache" on weekends (or other break from a 9-to-5 weekday job) due to a decrease in stress.
Image credits: tense_n_nervous
#4
TIL that before the advent of refrigerators, Russians would put frogs in milk to keep it from going bad
Image credits: oontkima
#5
TIL it took 4 people only 4 days to replicate a typical 2.5 tonne Block of the Great Pyramid, using the same tools found in an abandoned ancient quarry (copper chisels, wooden mallets, etc.)
Image credits: BetaKeyTakeaway
#6
TIL Harrison Ford was frozen in The Empire Strikes Back because, unlike Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, Ford had only signed on for two films. After the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lucas didn't think Ford would return for the 3rd Star Wars film, but left him frozen just in case.
Image credits: wjbc
#7
TIL Krabby Patty is a veggie burger, as he series' creator, Stephen Hillenburg, expressly stated that the patties do not contain any meat.
Image credits: Super_ACF
#8
TIL the self-absorption paradox asserts that the more self-aware we are, the less likely we are to make social mistakes, but the more likely we are to torture ourselves over past mistakes. High self-awareness leads to more psychological distress.
Image credits: SonOfQuora
#9
TIL the most powerful commercial radio station ever was WLW (700KHz AM), which during certain times in the 1930s broadcasted 500kW radiated power. At night, it covered half the globe. Neighbors within the vicinity of the transmitter heard the audio in their pots, pans, and mattresses.
Image credits: PlatinumAero
#10
TIL - Ben and Jerry's has a physical graveyard that they retire old flavors to, and you can actually go visit it.
Image credits: Chr0nos1
#11
TIL Almost 25% of non-driving teens in a survey say they’re not licensed because they’re scared to drive a car. 40.2% of teens think driving is scary and 58% of parents are scared of them driving
Image credits: van_datascience
#12
TIL there is a herd of wild zebras in central California that can be seen off of Route 1 near San Simeon.
Image credits: Platographer
#13
TIL that Sea Urchins are called Sea Urchins because Hedgehogs used to be called Urchins until about the 15th century. Sea Urchins are Ocean Hedgehogs.
Image credits: theonewithBacon
#14
TIL that the Concorde airplane flew so fast, if you left London (or Paris) in the evening flying west towards New York, to the passengers in the plane, the sun would actually appear to begin rising again shortly after reaching cruising speed. The plane flew faster than the Earth's rotation.
Image credits: PlatinumAer0
#15
TIL of Tullimonstrum Gregarium, aka the Tully Monster. An animal so strange, that despite having thousands of fossils, we don’t know whether it was a vertebrate or an invertebrate. To add to the strangeness, fossils of this creature have only been found in one fossil site in the world.
Image credits: xSparkyBoomManx
#16
TIL that cigarette filters were designed with color-changing chemicals to give the illusion that they filter out toxins. In reality, the filters have little to no health benefits.
Image credits: gnulynnux
#17
TIL In the original ending to "Pretty Woman", Richard Gere's character throws Julia Roberts character out of his limo in a dirty alley and tosses $3,000 on top of her
Image credits: New_Particular7075
#18
TIL Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He was frustrated with the fact that he had to go and ask his coworkers what data was on their computer so he can add it to his computer which led to him creating an application that became the world wide Web.
Image credits: somnifacientsawyer
#19
TIL Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere and the only world other than Earth that has surface liquid in the form of lakes, rivers and oceans#20
TIL that in India, there is a species of giant squirrel that have multicoloured fur, with with varying shades of orange, maroon and purple. Their bodies measure 36in from head to tail – double the size of their grey relatives – and they can leap 20ft between trees.#21
TIL that due to the fact that they spend the majority of their lives on sea ice, polar bears are classified as marine mammals, like dolphins, seals, and whales.#22
TIL Cyprus was going to host the first particle accelerator in the Middle East, but ministers chose to spend the money on hosting the Miss Universe pageant instead.
Image credits: mrcchapman
#23
TIL Procter & Gamble argued for years that Pringles were NOT potato chips, but Britain’s Supreme Court of Judicature ultimately determined that they were -- requiring Procter & Gamble to pay $160 million in taxes.
Image credits: sisyphushaditsoeasy
#24
TIL there's a mineral element (Promethium) so rare that it's estimated there are 500-600 grams of it in the Earth's crust
Image credits: Soft-Problem
#25
TIL the natural birth rate of boys to girls is 105 to 100, but it evens out by reproductive age because more boys die in childhood.#26
TIL about two Irish boys aged 13 and 10 who in 1985 ended up in New York after sneaking onto a train and a ferry in Dublin, a train to Heathrow, and a flight to JFK, all without being caught.
Image credits: katdicko
#27
TIL that Vermont ambulances stock maple syrup for 'oral glucose' administration.#28
Today I learned that there was a species of humans that were extremely short, named Homo floresiensis, and nicknamed 'hobbit'. They were found on the island of Flores, Indonesia, and the remains of a skeleton found tell us that they were around 1.1m tall.#29
TIL Lewis Hamilton pledged £20m ($27.5m) to set up the Hamilton Mission in an effort to improve groups who are under represented in motorsports due to its extremely high cost entry barrier. Out of the 770 drivers in F1 history, he is the only black driver.#30
TIL about a New Jersey history professor who was telling a story to his class about how a ranger saved his life in a canyon at night in Texas in 1940. The ranger had managed to track him down and coincidentally walked in to the classroom right as the professor was telling the story.#31
TIL two high school students found that despite advertising claims that “the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges,” the drink contained almost no trace of vitamin C and one orange juice brand had over three times more. The company were taken to court and fined NZ$217,500.
Image credits: Str33twise84
#32
TIL Purkinje Effect. Which states that as the lights dim, our eyes get more sensitive towards blue end of the spectrum. This is the reason why in movie theaters, chairs are usually red. In low light, red is the first color the human eye loses sight of, hence enhancing our viewing experience.#33
TIL Due to casino distributions, every Seminole Indian child born is a multi millionaire when they turn 18 years old.
Image credits: joecooool418
#34
TIL that Tupac Shakur renamed his publishing company name from "Ghetto Gospel Music" to "Joshua’s Dream" after meeting with 11-year old Joshua Torres with muscular dystrophy who died 45 minutes after Tupac left his bedside#35
TIL Toyota only made 2 convertible 2000GTs. They were specially made for use in a James Bond movie, because Sean Connery was too tall to fit in the standard model.#36
TIL of the Ovitz family, not only the largest family of dwarfs ever recorded but also the largest family (12 people ranging from a 15-month-old baby to a 58-year-old woman) to enter Auschwitz and survive intact.
Image credits: lighted_is_lit
#37
TIL that there is an FAA regulation called the 'Sterile Cockpit Rule', requiring flight crews to abstain from discussing anything other than topics pertinent to the aircraft and the flight below 10,000 feet.#38
TIL, that Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen's tribute for Elvis, took Freddie Mercury 10 minutes to write while taking a bath#39
TIL, The Netherlands gives Canada 20,000 tulips every year as a thank you for protecting the Dutch royal family in ww2
Image credits: Jasian1001
#40
TIL that the vampires were not inspired by bats. Bloodsucking bats were only discovered in Latin America in the 16th century, while the earliests vampires stories were from 12th century Europe.#41
TIL in 1914 the first residential air conditioners cost between $10k and $50k (or $120k to $600k inflation-adjusted). By the 1960s, they were as low as $416 (or $4k inflation-adjusted). Since then, heat-related deaths in the U.S. have declined by 80 percent.
Image credits: SojourningCPA
#42
TIL that the Sun is 99.86% of all mass in our solar system. Every other planet, asteroid, and comet only adds up to 7/50th of a single percent.
Image credits: Katiari
#43
TIL that anime characters shout out their attacks because manga is black and white and it would be confusing for readers to tell what is going on.
Image credits: Hrstar1
#44
TIL that despite not existing for the past 30 years, the Soviet Union still holds the most Olympic gold medals for wrestling.
Image credits: disc2k
#45
TIL in 1984 javelin thrower Uwe Hohn threw a distance of 104.8m and became the first and only athlete in history to break the 100m barrier. Shortly afterwards some changes in the design of javelins were implemented and the records had to be restarted, turning his mark into an "eternal world record".
Image credits: heckin_rude_hooman
#46
TIL that Franz Kafka starved to death because the tuberculosis in his throat would not allow him to eat.#47
TIL The crew of the space shuttle Columbia knew of the catastrophic re-entry failure, and that they were going to die for 40 seconds before rapid cabin depressurization#48
TIL black stones in Go are manufactured to be slightly larger compared to the white ones, to compensate for the optical illusion of white objects looking bigger when placed adjacent to black objects.#49
TIL when Muhammad Ali lost to Larry Holmes in 1980, then 14-year old boxing prospect Mike Tyson spoke to Ali on the phone, promising to avenge the loss. He fulfilled the promise seven years later, knocking Holmes out in four rounds. Tyson later called it a highlight of his careerfrom Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3zxeDPX
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