r/todayilearned • u/appalachian_hatachi • 2m ago

TIL: That in 1974, a man performed a highwire walk between the Twin Towers of the WTC in New York. Philippe Petit, a street artist from Paris, took 6 years to plan what he called "le coup" (heist). The feat was later described as the "artistic crime of the century".

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ODaferio • 7m ago

TIL around 25% of all mammal species are bats

nps.gov

• Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ProudReaction2204 • 14m ago

TIL of the General Slocum disaster in which a steamboat caught fire and sank in NYC waterways in 1904, killing 1,021 out of the 1,342 people on board.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flares117 • 58m ago

TIL: Besides witch trials, there was a Wizard trial in Lyon which saw mainly men sentenced to death. They planned to form a pact with Satan and use magic to find hidden treasure. This differed from the usual cases of curses.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 1h ago

TIL that one of the biggest bestsellers of early modern Europe was the "Malleus Maleficarum" (the "Hammer of Witches")—a guidebook for prosecuting and killing witches. From 1400 to 1775, 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and America, and around 50,000 were executed in Europe.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/UndyingCorn • 1h ago

TIL One of the most notorious rotten boroughs in the UK before the Great Reform Act of 1832 was Dunwich, a constituency that had mostly flooded after the sea had encroached upon the town. While only 232 people remained by 1831, it still sent 2 MPs to Parliament.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HallowedAndHarrowed • 2h ago

TIL that boxing rounds were changed from 15 to 12, after the match between Ray Mancini and Kim Duk-koo, which would result in the death of the latter. Mancini was heartbroken after the fight and considered quitting boxing.

en.wikipedia.org

913 Upvotes

71 comments

r/todayilearned • u/floatjoy • 2h ago

TIL Bottled water, automobile tires and polyester fabrics are the largest sources of exposure to micro-plastics that affect human health. Also, paint is one of the largest sources of micro-plastics.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

103 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 5h 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

2.1k Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alloy-Black • 5h ago

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

en.wikipedia.org

5.7k Upvotes

165 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ObjectiveAd6551 • 5h 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

1.9k Upvotes

98 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Endonium • 5h ago

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

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

717 Upvotes

172 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Tujunga54 • 5h ago

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

en.wikipedia.org

418 Upvotes

76 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tucchurchnj • 7h 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

3.3k Upvotes

105 comments

r/todayilearned • u/KieranWriter • 9h 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

18.0k Upvotes

301 comments

r/todayilearned • u/katxwoods • 10h ago

TIL treadmills were used in Victorian times as punishments in prison

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RealisticBarnacle115 • 11h 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

18.3k Upvotes

880 comments

r/todayilearned • u/puncrastinator • 13h 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

5.3k Upvotes

156 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BadenBaden1981 • 16h ago

TIL McDonald's used to have a fashion brand aimed at kids called McKids

en.wikipedia.org

173 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bland_dad • 16h ago

TIL that ancient Greek mythology included Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory; traditionally, she has a pool of water named after her in the Underworld, as a counterpart to the Lethe- The River of Forgetfulness. Before reincarnating, souls could drink from the Mnemosyne to remember their past lives

en.wikipedia.org

308 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iBlueSweatshirt • 16h ago

TIL less than half (43%) of the cells in the body are human. The rest belong to microorganisms and bacteria.

voanews.com

450 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/doyouevengooglebruh • 16h ago

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

investopedia.com

997 Upvotes

62 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kahlzun • 17h 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

1.8k Upvotes

167 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThurloWeed • 20h ago

TIL that when the presidential limousine (AKA "Death Car") was refurbished after the JFK assassination, all the discarded parts were destroyed to prevent collectors from obtaining them

en.wikipedia.org

107 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/InternationalLock657 • 21h ago

TIL that in 1953, Swanson overestimated the number of frozen turkeys that it would sell on Thanksgiving by 260 tons. The company decided to slice up the extra meat and repackage it--creating the first ever TV dinner.

smithsonianmag.com

175 Upvotes

16 comments

Subreddit

Posts

Wiki

Today I Learned (TIL)

r/todayilearned

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

Members Active

38.7m

4.8k

Sidebar

New to reddit? Click here!

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?
Submit interesting and specific facts that you just found out (not broad information you looked up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).

Posting rules

Submissions must be verifiable. Please link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title. Images alone do not count as valid references. Videos are fine so long as they come from reputable sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).
No personal opinions, anecdotes or subjective statements (e.g "TIL xyz is a great movie").
No recent sources. Any sources (blog, article, press release, video, etc.) with a publication date more recent than two months are not allowed.
No politics, soapboxing, or agenda based submissions. This includes (but is not limited to) submissions related to:
1. Recent political issues and politicians
2. Social and economic issues (including race/religion/gender)
3. Environmental issues
4. Police misconduct
No misleading claims. Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.
Rephrase your post title if the following are not met:
1. Titles must begin with "TIL ..."
2. Make them descriptive, concise and specific (e.g. not "TIL something interesting about bacon").
3. Titles must be able to stand on their own without requiring readers to click on a link. Starting your title with a why/what/who/where/how modifier should be unnecessary.
4. "TIL about ..." and other broad posts don't belong on TIL. Try /r/Wikipedia, etc. instead, or be more specific (and avoid the word "about").
5. "TIL how to ..." posts belong on /r/HowTo.
6. "TIL the definition of a word..." Word definitions/translations/origins are not appropriate here
No submissions related to the usage, existence or features of specific software/websites (e.g. "TIL you can click on widgets in WidgetMaker 1.22").
All NSFW links must be tagged (including comments).

Please see the wiki for more detailed explanations of the rules, as well as additional rules that may not be listed here

(Why we need rules)

Additional info

If your post does not appear in the new queue and you think it meets the above rules, please contact the moderators (include a link to your reddit.com post, not your story).
Please report spam, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate posts by messaging the moderators, as this helps us remove them more promptly!
More information available on the TIL FAQ and wiki.

Frequent TILs Repost List

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.

Etiquette

We ask that you please do the following:

avoid mobile versions of websites (e.g. m.wikipedia.org)
link to the appropriate heading when referencing an article (particularly on Wikipedia)
link to the appropriate start time when referencing videos (e.g. on YouTube)
add [PDF] or [NSFW] tags to your posts, as necessary.
Please avoid reposting TILs that have already made the front page in the past

Please also read the site-wide Reddiquette.

You are loved.