From endless, scrollable feeds to high speed internet, these days, many of us might take it for granted that you can literally, at the push of a button, see a whole host of new information every single second of the day. If that sounds overwhelming, do not fear, helpful netizens are out there to filter and share the best bits.
We’ve gathered another dose of interesting and novel “today I learned” facts to impress at dinner parties and dominate at trivia games. So get comfortable as you scroll though, upvote the things you learned and be sure to comment your thoughts and experiences below.
#1
Spartan law forbade the marriage of a girl until she was in her late teens or early 20s. The reasons were to ensure the birth of healthy children; and to spare women the risks and lifelong health damage associated with adolescent pregnancy.
Image source: Puzzleheaded-Cat4647, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours
#2
In 2020, five Lithuanian soldiers went missing during a graduation exam. Thinking the exercise was still ongoing, they successfully evaded all attempts to find them. A military spokesman said their performance was “exemplary.”
Image source: Ok-Indication-5121, Art Guzman/pexels
#3
Disney cofounder Roy Disney spent time with his grandchildren every week at Disneyland. Roy greeted each employee by name and picked up garbage he saw on the ground to teach them “Nobody is too good to pick up trash”.
Image source: ubcstaffer123, Brian McGowan
#4
John Krasinski fought for a deaf actress Millicent Simmonds to be cast in ‘A Quiet Place’; she taught everyone sign language on set.
Image source: Puzzleheaded-Cat4647, IMDb
#5
Egyptian builders such as those of the pyramids were usually not slaves, and frequently took sick days from work. Popular excuses included “stung by scorpion”, “bleeding wife”, “trouble with eye”, and even “brewing beer”.
Image source: Chemical-Elk-1299, Charles Wilkinson
#6
Scientists have been communicating with apes via sign language since the 1960s; apes have never asked one question.
Image source: alfdana, Janosch Diggelmann
#7
Obelisk, a Queen’s Guard horse, who used to lure pigeons to him by dropping oats from his mouth. When they came close, he would stomp them to death. He was eventually taken for additional ‘psychological training’.
Image source: -Ash-Ketchup-, Gaby Lopez/pexels
#8
When Arnold Schwarzenegger auditioned for the movie Hercules in New York (his film debut), his agent said he had years of “stage” experience, implying theater, when he had only appeared on bodybuilding stages.
Image source: sgrams04
#9
Menstruation is actually very rare in mammals. Other than humans, only 9 primate species, 4 bat species, the elephant shrew, and one species of mouse menstruate. All other female mammals reabsorb their uterine lining, rather than shed it.
Image source: MaroonTrucker28, Adriaan Greyling/pexels
#10
American composer Kevin MacLeod allows anyone to use his music for free, as long as he receives credit for the song. This has led to his music being used in thousands of films, millions of videos on YouTube.
Image source: icanhazkarma17
#11
In Germany a driver’s license costs over $2000 after a minimum of 25-45 hours of professional instruction plus 12 hours of theory.
Image source: ubcstaffer123
#12
‘Botanical sexism’ refers to the practice of preferentially planting cloned male plants in urban areas to avoid the litter of fruits and flowers. However, since male plants produce pollen, this can lead to high pollen levels in the air, making the area inhospitable for people with allergies.
Image source: rustyyryan
#13
In Bhutan, people do not recognize, and many do not know, their individual birthdays. Everyone in the country turns another year older together each January 1st.
Image source: PianoCharged
#14
Yellowstone’s famed thermal pools can melt flesh and bone. In 2016, a tourist illegally searching for a swimmable hot spring fell into a portion of the Norris Geyser Basin, where his body was dissolved by the boiling, highly acidic water. His wallet and shoes were all that remained of him.
Image source: Chemical-Elk-1299
#15
Castrated men do not go bald. Balding is caused by sex hormones which castrated men do not produce.
Image source: ImJoeKing77, khalifa waleed/pexels
#16
The common plastic garden chair is called a “Monobloc” chair, and was once banned in Switzerland for polluting the cityscape.
Image source: Thomas_Catthew, Chris/flickr
#17
Sylvester Stallone asked Survivor to write the song Eye of the Tiger because Queen wouldn’t let him use Another One Bites the Dust.
Image source: sd_glokta
#18
Multiple studies have found that an extra inch of height can be worth an extra $1,000 a year in wages both for men and women.
Image source: LeftNeck9994, Anna Shvets /pexels
#19
Most people can see their own white blood cells moving through their retinas.
Image source: space_force_majeure, Almada Studio/pexels
#20
A man died in the lighthouse he built. Henry Winstanley was so confident in the lighthouse’s design that he wished to be inside during “the greatest storm there ever was”. The lighthouse was completely destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703, killing Winstanley.
Image source: TMWNN, Henry Roberts
#21
Helium was detected on the sun before it was detected on Earth. That’s why it was named for Helios, the Greek god of the sun.
Image source: gullydon
#22
Humans are the “most sensitive” to the castor oil seeds: it takes 1 to [take out] a full grown human, 11 to [take out] a dog, and a massive dose of 80 to [take out] a duck. The seeds contain ricin which is roughly 6000 times more poisonous than cyanide.
Image source: tyrion2024, Beatrice Murch/flickr
#23
Recruitment to the British Army’s Gurkha unit is extremely competitive, accepting only 230 recruits out of 28,000 applicants. All recruitment happens in Nepalese villages, and candidates must participate in a two-mile race up a steep hill, carrying 35kg of rocks in a basket.
Image source: EtOHMartini
#24
A 2022 survey of 3,000 adults & children found that just 27% of children (ages 6-16) said they regularly play outside their homes, whereas, 71% of the baby boomer generation said they did when they were children (80% for those ages 55-64).
Image source: tyrion2024
#25
Benjamin Franklin used to sit around naked for extended periods to take air baths.
Image source: athornton
#26
GPS, despite being free for global use, costs around $2 million a day to operate and maintain. This budget covers satellite launches and system upkeep, funded through American tax revenue.
Image source: whstlngisnvrenf
#27
In 2008, Tesla took the TV series Top Gear to court for libel and malicious falsehood after it suggested one of its vehicles had run out of power after only 55 miles. The High Court of Justice in London rejected Tesla’s libel claim in 2011.
Image source: 9oRo
#28
Amelia Earhart had a copilot when she disappeared, his name was Fred Noonan.
Image source: aomusik, Los Angeles Daily News
#29
The Nuremberg Trials executioner lied to the US Military about his prior experience. He botched a number of hangings prior to Nuremberg. The Nuremberg criminals had their faces battered bloody against the too-small trapdoor and were hung from short ropes, with many taking over 10 minutes to die.
Image source: shibafather
#30
The famous “We Can Do It!” poster was barely known during WWII. It was displayed for two weeks as part of a series of posters to boost worker morale in one company’s factories. It remained virtually unknown until the 1980s when it was rediscovered in an article about the National Archives.
Image source: JRFbase
#31
Cars must have at least three-quarters of a tank in order to leave Singapore, in order to stop them from buying cheaper gas in Malaysia and circumventing Singapore’s gas tax.
Image source: Brix001, Skitterphoto/pexels
#32
There have been multiple attempts to privatize the National Weather Service and charge for weather data that is currently in the public domain.
Image source: P4t13nt_z3r0
#33
There were 12 confirmed dogs on the Titanic and 3 of them survived.
Image source: Ok-Respond-81
#34
Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill. There are specific techniques and tips, like learning to check your reality, that can increase chances of having a lucid dream.
Image source: BumbleBChicken
#35
Charlize Theron’s mother shot and killed her father in self defense in front of her. Charlize would later go on to be the first person born in Africa to win an Oscar for acting.
Image source: Korribuns
#36
Ben Stiller developed the premise for Tropic Thunder while shooting Empire of the Sun. He wanted to make a film based on the actors he knew who became “self-important” & appeared to believe they had been part of a real military unit after taking part in boot camps to prepare for war film roles.
Image source: tyrion2024
#37
In 2020 Cambridge University Library announced that two notebooks written by Charles Darwin, “worth many millions of pounds”, had been missing for 20 years & had likely been stolen. One of the notebooks contains Darwin’s famous Tree of Life sketch that explores the relationship between species.
Image source: tyrion2024
#38
A Chinese man was thought to have died from a lightning strike until his body exploded at his cremation. A piece of metal was found leading to the discovery that a weather rocket, meant to break up hail, had failed to explode & had fallen through the man’s roof acting like a bullet, killing him.
Image source: tyrion2024
#39
“Smiley Face Theory,” which alleges that from 1990–2010, 45 young men found dead in bodies of water across the Midwest did not accidentally drown but were rather victims of a serial killer. The only known connection is grafiti depicting a “smiley face” found near at least a dozen bodies.
Image source: Fun-Maintenance9422
#40
Steller’s sea cows were massive, docile animals that were exterminated less than 30 years after the species was first discovered.
Image source: malarky-b
#41
A number of people, including a group of Swedish researchers, tried to replicate the experiment shown in the documentary Super Size Me(2004). None of them were able to get the same results as the documentary creator.
Image source: Porchie12
#42
On warning of a likely missile launch against the USA, the Pentagon and Strategic Command war rooms, have one minute to brief the president, who then has roughly only six minutes to decide whether and how to respond.
Image source: CapnFancyPants
#43
Only three objects have ever been found inside the Great Pyramid of Giza- pieces of wood, a ball made of diorite, and a copper hook. They were found in 1872 in a shaft leading from the Queen’s Chamber.
Image source: Astro_gamer_caver, Brooklyn Museum
#44
Aztecs had 18 festivities each year, 17 of which included human sacrifices. Apart from extraction of the heart, they used variety of other methods; drowning, starvation, decapitation, burning, bludgeoning, throwing from heights, forced gladiatorial combat and shooting with arrows.
Image source: HamFistedSurgeon
#45
US airlines are legally required to refund a ticket within 24 hours of purchase, no matter if the ticket type was refundable or not.
Image source: Chemical_Act_7648
#46
In 2013, a man tried to dribble a football from Seattle to Brazil to promote a charity. He was run over and killed by a truck just 250 miles into his 10,000-mile trip.
Image source: 9oRo
#47
No one has seen a newborn great white shark pup or birth in the wild.
Image source: f_GOD
#48
Celine Dion represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Contest and won, even through she was a French-Canadian.
Image source: Environmental-Low792
#49
EA makes $420 millon/year off of the Sims 4.
Image source: emotional_low, Electronic Arts
#50
James Cameron offered Matt Damon 10% of “Avatar,” which would’ve earned the actor over $250 million.
Image source: friendlystranger4u
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