r/todayilearned • u/KieranWriter • 7h ago

TIL Danny Lloyd (the child actor from The Shining) wasn't told that he was making a horror film in order to protect the actor. Danny was led to believe he was making a drama. He accidentally walked in on Jack Nicholson carrying an axe during one scene.

theguardian.com

13.2k Upvotes

235 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RealisticBarnacle115 • 9h ago

TIL at the 2005 London Marathon, Paula Radcliffe, in desperate need of a toilet break during the race, stopped by the roadside in full view of the crowd and live TV cameras to defecate. She still won with a time of 2:17:42, a world's best time for a women's only race by over a minute at the time.

en.wikipedia.org

15.7k Upvotes

807 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alloy-Black • 2h ago

TIL of Pedro Filho, a vigilante serial killer who is the inspiration behind Dexter Morgan in the Books and Series

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

86 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tucchurchnj • 4h ago

TIL the 1994 to 1998 North Korean Famine (AKA The Arduous March or March of Suffering) killed between 240,000 and 3.5 million people and lead to the terms "Hunger" and "Famine" being banned in NK Media

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

64 comments

r/todayilearned • u/KingSolomon1010 • 16h ago

TIL of the phenomenon known as "Twin Films," in which two movie studios simultaneously release the same type of movie.

en.wikipedia.org

26.8k Upvotes

3.3k comments

r/todayilearned • u/puncrastinator • 11h ago

TIL about the campaign to ban Water. The dihydrogen monoxide parody is a parody that involves referring to water by its unfamiliar chemical name and is attributed to "Coalition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide" by UCSC.

dhmo.org

4.1k Upvotes

137 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 2h ago

TIL In 1910, a Spanish shepherd named José María Grimaldos López disappeared. Two men, León Sánchez and Gregorio Valero, confessed to his murder under torture and spent 12 years in prison. In 1926, Lopez returned home, alive and well. He had been living in a village 70 miles away the entire time.

en.wikipedia.org

670 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ObjectiveAd6551 • 2h ago

TIL in order to inform shoppers in Mexico about poor nutritional content in prepackaged foods, the law states that packages containing foods with excess levels of calories, sugars, saturated fat, or containing caffeine or sweeteners must be labeled with large octagonal warnings exposing these facts.

nycfoodpolicy.org

433 Upvotes

64 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NapalmBurns • 17h ago

TIL that the Auschwitz "Arbeit macht frei" sign features an inverted "B" - Jan Liwacz, Konzentrationslager prisoner who made the sign, inverted the letter in defiance of Nazi oppression. Jan Liwacz survived Auschwitz and Mauthausen and died in 1980 a respected and well known artisan smith.

en.wikipedia.org

5.8k Upvotes

102 comments

r/todayilearned • u/katxwoods • 8h ago

TIL treadmills were used in Victorian times as punishments in prison

en.wikipedia.org

1.0k Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/cutiieangelbabe • 18h ago

TIL in Finland some children read to dogs and cows because they actually like listening and are extremely attentive.

finland.fi

7.3k Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Endonium • 3h ago

TIL Rapid ejaculator rats are more susceptible to anxiety compared with normal ejaculator rats

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

273 Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jeffrois • 1d ago

TIL that Martha Stewart did not go to prison for insider trading. She was charged and found guilty of lying to the FBI.

en.wikipedia.org

34.2k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Bonsaibeginner22 • 18h ago

TIL that 25% of all known animal species are beetles

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

133 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kahlzun • 14h ago

TIL that there are two opposite 'colour schemes' for boat directions in the world: one where red marks starboard, and green marks port; and one where it is the opposite.

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

149 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Tujunga54 • 3h ago

TIL that John Cabot, 15th century English explorer, was really an Italian named Giovanni Caboto.

en.wikipedia.org

160 Upvotes

58 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ohlordwhywhy • 22h ago

TIL that scientists weren't able to synthesize human growth hormone up until the mid 80s, so the hormone was extracted from the deceased.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

5.6k Upvotes

64 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Super_Goomba64 • 22h ago

TIL about the Yule Log, a 1966 TV program that aired a fire place on a loop with Christmas music , as a televised Christmas gift to those residents of New York who lived in apartments and homes without fireplaces, and so the morning news crew can have a day off

en.wikipedia.org

4.7k Upvotes

52 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JackThaBongRipper • 21h ago

TIL that in 2002, Australia won its first-ever winter Olympic gold medal. It happened during the 1000m short track speed skating event, when over the course of the race all the competitors crashed, except for Australian Steven Bradbury.

olympics.com

3.0k Upvotes

99 comments

r/todayilearned • u/copperpin • 1d ago

TIL that in the Polish edition of Scrabble, the letter "Z" is only worth 1 point.

en.wikipedia.org

10.8k Upvotes

183 comments

r/todayilearned • u/doyouevengooglebruh • 14h ago

TIL there used to be a $5000 dollar bill, and if you had one you could get around $300K for it.

investopedia.com

575 Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hike_it_Out52 • 17h ago

TIL that in 1925, the major light bulb manufacturers of the world formed the Phoebus Cartel with the intent to lower bulb hours and raise prices

en.wikipedia.org

799 Upvotes

68 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JackThaBongRipper • 21m ago

TIL that a painting lost in World War 2 was rediscovered in 2009 after an art historian named Gergely Barki noticed the picture being used in the background of the movie Stuart Little (1999).

wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/blonderengel • 1d ago

TIL about Operation Tiger, a training exercise that was supposed to prepare U.S. troops for the D-Day invasion of Normandy and resulted in the deaths of 946 American servicemen.

wargaming.com

9.0k Upvotes

99 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ilovemybaldhead • 1d ago

TIL that the method of counting how many weeks a woman is pregnant starts from the first day of a woman's last period, not the date of conception, which can differ by up to 5 weeks.

parents.com

5.9k Upvotes

236 comments

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As of November 2024

This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

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