Think about the most recent interesting thing that you learned about the world. The odds are that fewer people know what you know than you realize. Luckily, there are friendly, top-quality online communities like ‘Today I Learned’ that encourage internet users to openly share all the new knowledge they’ve acquired.
Today, we’re featuring some of the freshest, most fascinating TIL facts about the world to help keep your mind sharp and wake your curiosity up. Keep scrolling to learn something new to impress your friends with.
#1 Humans Are Among The Very Top Mammals For Endurance Running
While we aren’t the best sprinters, our slow-twitch muscles and unique ability to sweat allow us to run steadily for long distances in hot weather to outlast prey
Image source: bareegyptianfeet
#2 Costco Is Responsible For 50% Of The Cashews Sold Worldwide. The Company Sources From, And Supports, Independent Nut Farmers In At Least 20 Countries Including An Estimated 2.5 Million Independent Cashew Farmers In Africa Alone
Image source: tyrion2024
#3 Humans Neurologically Enter Adulthood At The Age Of 32 On Average
Image source: ConsciousStop
With 4.7 million weekly visitors, the ‘Today I Learned’ subreddit continues to be one of the most popular online communities on the internet. One of the main reasons behind its popularity is just how rigorous the moderators are about enforcing quality, factual content. For instance, you have to provide reliable sources to support your claims, and they can’t be more recent than 2 months. Furthermore, you’re prohibited from sharing personal opinions, political agendas, misleading claims, unrelated information, and personal biases.
These regulations help the TIL community avoid a lot of the misinformation and disinformation that can be found floating on the internet and on social media.
The former, misinformation, refers to claims that are shared by people who don’t realize that they’re false. The latter, disinformation, is fake news that people deliberately spread to advance their agenda.
#4 Ram 2500 Drivers Have The Most DUIs, And More Than Twice The National Average
Roughly 1 in 22 Ram 2500 drivers have been cited with a DUI before
Image source: TripleShotPls
#5 Chicken Sold In Supermarkets Are Often “Plumped” With A Salt Water Solution To Increase Sell Weight, Making Up As Much As 30% Of The Total Weight
A serving of plumped chicken can contain between 200 and 500mg of sodium while non-plumped chicken generally contains 45 to 70mg
Image source: James_Fortis
#6 When Humans Sleep, Certain Proteins In The Brain Literally Shrink Neurons To Allow Cerebrospinal Fluid To Wash Away Waste — A “Nighttime Cleaning System” Only Active During Deep Sleep
Image source: One_Needleworker5218
Evaluating every single fact that you come across online is inefficient. Very few people have the time and energy to do in-depth research about every single fact they read.
So, you’re better off evaluating the reliability and trustworthiness of the source instead. Though all sources sometimes make factual errors, they are not all created equal. Good sources employ journalists who strive to be transparent, are held accountable for their work, make corrections when needed, have editors check their work, and avoid presenting opinions as facts.
As reported by the BBC, there are 3 main things that you should do to tell if a source is reliable. First of all, consider the person who wrote the claim, and check their work history for accuracy and biases. Secondly, consult several sources to cross-reference and verify the information you’ve come across. And third, check the actual evidence that the source is presenting.
“It’s always a good sign if you can find where the news has come from and clearly see the facts behind the piece. It’s also good to ask yourself if what the source is saying sounds believable. If it appears a bit out of this world or too good to be true, then the chances are that it might well be.”
#7 That Before 1856, Purple Dye Was Rare And Expensive – Until An 18-Year-Old Trying To Make A Malaria Cure Accidentally Created The First Synthetic Dye From Coal Tar, Patented It The Same Year, And Made Purple Suddenly Cheap And Fashionable
Image source: Upstairs_Drive_5602
#8 The United States Attempted Permanent Daylight Savings Time In 1974. They Retracted The Law Within A Year
Image source: Wanna_make_cash
#9 Michael B. Jordan’s Father Is Named Michael A. Jordan
Image source: Nodebunny
What are some of the most interesting new things you’ve learned recently, whether they’re positive or negative?
What do you do to stay curious about the world even after a long, exhausting day at work or school? How do you keep your mind sharp?
Tell us all about it in the comments!
#10 To Prove The Idea That Clark Kent Wearing Glasses Was Enough To Hide The Fact That He Is Superman
Henry Cavill, who played Superman in the 2016 film “Batman v Superman”, walked around Times Square wearing a Superman shirt in 2016, and no one seemed to notice him.
Image source: SatoruGojo232
#11 The United States Stores 94% Of All Electricity In The Form Of Water Reservoirs, Not In A Battery
Image source: rawj5561
#12 New Nissan Stadium, Future Home Of The NFL’s Tennessee Titans, Costs $2.1 Billion Dollars & Is Being Constructed Using $1.26 Billion Dollars Of Public Funds
This makes it the largest allocation of Stadium Subsidy funds to a sports venue in U.S. history
Image source: Next_Worth_3616
#13 After Learning What Museums Do, A Five-Year-Old Girl Named Bethan Donated Her Favourite Rock To Her Local Museum
Rather than just throw it out, the museum put Bethan’s rock on display, it went viral online and went on to become their most famous object
Image source: InmostJoy
#14 A Missionary Noticed A Pot (Actually A Ship’s Bell) Used In A Maori Village To Boil Potatoes, Had An Unfamiliar Script On It
The language was later identified to be Tamil, spoken in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Recent dating suggests the bell was cast in the 17th or 18th century
Image source: DiscussionFun2987
#15 Japan Has The World’s Second Highest Adoption Rate, But Most Of The Adoptees Are Adult Men In Their 20s And 30s
Image source: Double-decker_trams
#16 Every Us President For The Past 52 Years Was Either Named After Their Father Or Named Their Son After Themselves
Image source: derekpeake2
#17 In 2023 A Canadian Court Ruled That A Thumbs Up Emoji 👍 Carried Enough Weight To Establish A Legally Binding Contract Between Two Parties
Image source: RunDNA
#18 That When You Remember Something You’re Not Accessing The Original Memory
Your brain reconstructs it from scratch every time and slightly rewrites it in the process which is why memories change over time
Image source: NoSurprise3592
#19 While Most Ancient Romans Were Cremated, Any Roman Struck By A Lightning Was Thought To Have Been Struck Down By Jupiter And Had To Be Buried On The Spot
Image source: 2SP00KY4ME
#20 There Are Over 33,000 Japanese Companies With Histories Of 100 Years Or More. These Long-Standing Firms Are Known As ‘Shinise’
They are governed by a management philosophy that prioritizes long-term continuity and generational succession over short-term profits.
Image source: tyrion2024
#21 That Ioannis Ikonomou Is The Chief Translator Of The European Commision, Speaking 21 Of The 24 Official Languages
He is also the only Translator trusted with classified Chinese documents, which he considers his favorite Language, but also the most Complicated.
Image source: garlic98
#22 The Pink Color In Himalayan Pink Salt Is Mostly Rust
Image source: EstablishmentDue3616
#23 In 2023 Disney Made More Profit From Churros Sales At Its Theme Parks Than It Did For Disney+ Streaming
Image source: Pozzolana
#24 Industrialist Andrew Carnegie Spent $56.2 Million To Build 2509 Libraries Across The World
Known as Carnegie Libraries, cities had to follow a strict maintenance commitment to obtain funding. Today, there are an estimated 900 Carnegie Libraries operating in the United States
Image source: Next_Worth_3616
#25 In 2021 A Woman In A Hurry Checked Her Scratch-Off Ticket “Real Quick” And Then Gave To The Store Owners To Throw Out Because She Thought It Wasn’t A Winner
Ten days later, the owners returned it to her after scratching off the last number for her and discovering it was a $1 million winner.
Image source: tyrion2024
#26 Nearly 80% Of Us Workers Report That They Have Been Victims Of ‘Career Catfishing’ From Employers
Which in this context, the term describes when a company misrepresents a job, their company culture, or compensation to lure in candidates
Image source: tyrion2024
#27 A 2022 Study Revealed That 35% Of The Adults In Japan Intend To “Never Travel” Again
No other country “came close to the travel reluctance shown in Japan”; the next highest was South Korea at 15%.
Image source: tyrion2024
#28 Karl Patterson Schmidt. A Renowned Herpetologist, Schmidt Was Accidentally Bitten By A Young Boomslag Snake While In His Lab
Once he started noticing symptoms, he meticulously wrote down what he was experiencing until he passed away
Image source: MrMojoFomo
#29 The Botched Restoration Nicknamed “Monkey Christ” Was Deemed More Culturally Relevant Than The Original Painting And Preserved As-Is
Tens of thousands of tourists visit the Spanish town of Borja every year to see it, and the restorer became a local celebrity until her passing in late 2025
Image source: sciencewarrior
#30 Puppeteer Frank Oz Hasn’t Worked With The Muppets Since 2007 Not Because He Wanna Retire
In 2021, he stated: “I’d love to do the Muppets again but Disney doesn’t want me. They don’t want me because I won’t follow orders and I won’t do the kind of Muppets they believe in, The soul’s not there”.
Image source: Away_Flounder3813
#31 That During His Childhood, Canadian Singer Bryan Adams Was Sent To A Psychiatrist Because He Was Not Getting Along With His Parents
The same psychiatrist told Adams that there was nothing wrong with him and that his parents needed psychiatric help
Image source: waitingforthesun92
#32 That Alaska Airlines Worker John Liotine Had His Recommendation To Replace An Aging Jackscrew On An MD-83 During Routine Maintenance Overruled In 1997
On January 31st, 2000 the same MD-83, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed mid flight over the Pacific Ocean due to the jackscrew failing
Image source: Next_Worth_3616
#33 North America Used To Be Plagued By The Rocky Mountain Locust, And One 1875 Swarm Holds The Record For The Largest Animal Concentration Ever Recorded. However, They Have Not Been Seen Since 1904
Image source: Hailfog
#34 The Author Of The Original “The Outsiders” Novel Began Writing The Book When She Was Just 15, And Was Published When She Was 18
She released it using her initials and not her full name so the book wouldn’t be dismissed offhand by male book reviewers
Image source: ancient_horse
#35 In 1385, A Portuguese Army Of 6,600 Men Defeated A Massive Castilian Army Of 31,000 In The Battle Of Aljubarrota
The victory was so decisive it secured Portugal’s independence for the next 200 years
Image source: Soft-Loquat-3008
#36 In 2025 A Mini Dachshund Named Valerie Was Found Alive After 529 Days In The Australian Wilderness
Image source: anon
#37 Cows Don’t Automatically Produce Milk. They Need To Be Pregnant And Give Birth, And Then Milking Machines Stimulate Her To Continue Producing Milk
The most common dairy breed, the Holstein-Friesian, gives birth about once a year.
Image source: CalpurniaSomaya
#38 In 2013, “Thrift Shop” By Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Was Able, As An Independent Song, To Reach #1 On The Billboard Hot 100 Chart Without A Major Record Label. It Was Only The Second Independent Song To Reach #1 In History At The Time
Image source: AmiroZ
#39 The Phrase “The Strong Do What They Can And The Weak Suffer What They Must” Is From Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue
A classic example of political realism, it describes an Athenian ultimatum to the neutral island of Melos: submit or be destroyed. The Melians chose death
Image source: Bob_the_blacksmith
#40 In A 1995 Barbara Walters Interview, Jim Carrey Revealed That He Turned Down A $10 Million Offer To Star In ‘The Mask II’
Because his experiences on Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls convinced him that reprising a character he had previously played offered him no challenges as an actor.
Image source: tyrion2024
#41 The Person In Charge Of The Kamikaze Defence Of Okinawa, Admiral Matome Ugaki, Flew The Last Kamikaze Flight Himself
Image source: IsHildaThere
#42 The Central African Republic Requires You To Live There For 35 Years, Own Land, And Be Awarded A National Honour To Become Eligible For Citizenship
Image source: mazldo
#43 That 45 Years Ago, Saudi Arabia Built A 1,200-Kilometer Oil Pipeline From The Persian Gulf To The Red Sea, Just In Case The Strait Of Hormuz Ever Got Blocked
Image source: greenskinmarch
#44 Drew Barrymore Financed Production For The 2001 Cult Favorite Film Donnie Darko
Image source: Hyperion12
#45 The Tea Ruined At The Boston Tea Party Had A Value In 1773 Equivalent To $2.3 Million USD In Today’s Money
Image source: lvlith
#46 That Caffeine Has An Average Half Life Of 5 Hours
Image source: jbuckets44, Christina Rumpf / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#47 The World’s First Arctic Explorer Was A Greek Sailor From Marseille In 325 Bc
He also left us the first written references to Britain and Scotland — and came home to almost nobody believing him
Image source: PeaceAlternative6512
#48 Korean Air Was Known As “An Industry Pariah, Notorious For Fatal Crashes” In The Airline Industry Prior To 1999, Resulting In Hundreds Of Fatalities
South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung would call the airline’s safety record “an embarrassment to the nation” & would fly rival airliner Asiana.
Image source: Next_Worth_3616
#49 There Is A Rare Type Of Very Hard Wood Called ‘Lignum Vitae’
It’s so hard that it was used to make propeller shaft bearings for nuclear submarines.
Image source: Funny-Presence4228
#50 The Eruption From A Coke And Mentos Geyser Isn’t Caused By A Chemical Reaction, But Rather A Physical One
The surface of the Mento has millions of cavities which serve as nucleation sites for carbon dioxide to desaturate from.
Image source: ThomasTheDankPigeon
#51 There Is An Old Handwriting System That Is Faster Than Typing. Masters Have Reached Up To 280 Words Per Minute!
Image source: tincock
#52 Danny Devito And Robert Reich Are So Short Because They Both Suffer From Multiple Epiphyseal Dysplasia, A Rare Genetic Disorder That Slows Bone Growth
Image source: Well_Socialized
#53 That The Naturopath And Author Of Such Books As “The Cure For All Cancers,” “The Cure For All Diseases,” And “The Prevention Of All Cancers” Passed Away In 2009 From Cancer
Image source: Caboose127
#54 That Half Of The Earth’s Subsurface Heat Comes From Radioactive Decay, While The Other Half Is Still Left Over From When The Earth Formed
Image source: amateurfunk
#55 Mexico Is Officially Called The United Mexican States
Image source: FarBug5656
#56 That People Can Often Recognize A Familiar Song In As Little As A Few Hundred Milliseconds After It Starts Playing
Image source: One_Needleworker5218
#57 That In 1997, A Full-Scale Replica Of The Simpsons House Was Built In Henderson, Nevada, As A Contest Grand Prize, But The Winner Opted To Take The Cash Instead Of The House
Image source: Giff95
#58 When Vince Mcmahon Was In Charge Of The Wwe, The Word ‘Wrestling’ And Other Variations Of It Were Banned. Wrestlers Weren’t Allowed To Say These Words On TV
Image source: Omer-Ash
#59 That A 7-Year-Old Discovered He Could Make Free Long-Distance Phone Calls In The 1950s By Whistling At Certain Frequencies
Born blind and with perfect pitch, Joe Engressia a.k.a. Joybubbles was an early “phreaker” whose exploits inspired Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak during his college years.
Image source: ralphbernardo
#60 Kaiser Wilhelm II Was On Vacation When WW1 Started. Upon His Return Kaiser Was Furious At Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg Over Ultimatum Saying “How Did It All Happen?”
He offered resignation as apology but Wilhelm refused to accept it stating “You’ve made this stew, now you’re going to eat it!”
Image source: Solid-Move-1411
#61 In 2010, A Man In Georgia Dislocated His Jaw At Which Wich By Attempting To Eat Their Double Wicked Sandwich
It consists of double-portioned beef, bacon, turkey, ham, pepperoni and three cheeses. The man declined to sue them, only wanting a new Double Wicked as his friend ate the original.
Image source: PlayaSlayaX
#62 Basque Is Considered A Language Isolate, Meaning It Has No Relatives In The Whole World. The Only Such Language In Europe
Image source: my_n3w_account
#63 Driving With Your Hazards On In Bad Weather Is Illegal Depending Where You Live. Common Sense Says It Would Make The Situation Safer, But Experts Disagree
Image source: DonkeyFuel
#64 Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s Assassin, Was Raised As A Girl By His Parents Due To Them Believing A Curse Targeting Their Sons After Having Lost Three Of Their Other Sons, With Nathuram Literally Meaning “Ram With A Nose-Ring”
Image source: Chai80085
#65 Georg Gaertner, A Pow Who Escaped A Camp In New Mexico In 1945, Lived As A Fugitive For 40 Years And Eventually Got Citizenship
Because he had been brought to the US involuntarily and escaped the camp after the war, he was not charged with a crime and lived in the US for the rest of his life.
Image source: Equivalent-Peanut-23
#66 That Starting In The 1700s, Travelers Routinely Wore Fabric Belts To Prevent Disease By Keeping Their Stomachs Warm
Later called “cholera belts”, this practice continued through WW1, long after the bacterial origin of cholera was discovered in the 1850s.
Image source: Bob_the_blacksmith
#67 Only 15 Countries Operate Aircraft Carriers (And 7 Of Those Are For Helicopters Only)
Image source: thesmartass1
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