Two of the greatest upsides of the internet, in my opinion, are its ability to entertain us and put us right on track to learn something entirely new. We have the wealth of human wisdom at our fingertips, but we need constant reminders to hone our minds when we can just as easily spend the entire evening watching Netflix or reading about which celeb did what.
For me, the ‘Today I Learned’ community on Reddit is a constant reminder about how rich in information and full of knowledge our world really is. It is an online group that celebrates people learning something new every single day. So far, it has carved out a massive niche for its 26.3 million (soon to be 26.4 million) curious members who have a special place in their hearts for science and history. The TIL crowd helps keep me learning and, I hope, it’ll do the same for you, too, Pandas.
Scroll down for the newest TIL facts and trivia, upvote the ones that surprised you, and let us know in the comments about all the things that you recently learned.
Oh, and one of the best parts about these facts? We can totally repeat them during our lunch break and impress everyone with how brainy we are. Who doesn’t like random facts alongside their sandwich-and-tea combo, right? In case you need more interesting facts to fill your mind, you can always scroll through Bored Panda’s earlier articles featuring the TIL community. You’ll find them here, here, and here.
I wanted to get to grips with whether the internet is a force for education or a tool for distraction, as well as talk about how we can choose the direction of our further studies if we feel completely lost, so I reached out to Steven Wooding. A member of the Institute of Physics in the UK, Steven is also part of the Omni Calculator Project and helped create the Weird Units Converter (it’s a lot of fun for scientists and geeks alike). Read on for Bored Panda’s interview to see what Steven had to say.
#1
TIL when Dr. Joyce Brothers was a contestant on The $64,000 Question the show’s sponsor Revlon tried to get rid of her because she didn’t wear makeup on air. She was asked increasingly obscure questions but was able to answer them all correctly and became the show’s first woman to win the top prize.
Image source: Str33twise84, Twachtman, Phyllis
#2
TIL that in the Netherlands on May 4th 8 pm, no matter where you are, there is a 2-minute silence for the soldiers that died in WWII
Image source: Meme_Inhaler_Boi, Jasper Juinen
#3
TIL about the Edict of Salerno. In 1231 after noticing the rapidly rising cost of medicine, Emperor Friedrich II made it forbidden for doctors to double as pharmacists and the prices of various medicines were fixed so they could not rise further.
Image source: aceavengers, I, Sailko
#4
TIL at David Niven’s funeral, the largest wreath was from the porters at Heathrow Airport with a card reading “To the finest gentleman who ever walked through these halls. He made a porter feel like a king.”
Image source: HoneyGlazedBadger
#5
TIL that in 1867, an American businessman attended a reading of A Christmas Carol and was so moved by it, that he closed his factory on Christmas Day and sent every employee a turkey.
Image source: Russian_Bagel, pictureday
#6
TIL that in 1992, six visitors to a dinosaur exhibition in the Memphis Zoo demanded a refund after discovering it did not contain living dinosaurs
Image source: Capt_Easychord, MemphisZoo
#7
TIL Queen Victoria personally admired Harriet Tubman and gifted her a silk lace & linen shawl in 1897. It is now on display at the national museum of African-American history & Culture
Image source: CocaTrooper42
#8
TIL Viking women’s faces were more masculine than today’s women, while Viking men’s faces looked more feminine than today’s men, with a less prominent jaw and brow ridges. The ambiguous facial features mean that it is difficult to decide upon a Viking skeleton’s sex based on the skull alone
Image source: Brutal_Deluxe_
#9
TIL that the reason many Hanna Barbera characters had collars and ties was to save money on animation. Separating the head and body allows the body to remain static while the head is animated. This made it so a seven-minute cartoon only required around 2,000 drawings, as opposed to the usual 14,000
Image source: Steven_Randallson
#10
TIL according to the head of MI6, if James Bond was real, he would be unable to work for British intelligence because he lacks the required emotional intelligence, respect for the law and teamwork abilities.
Image source: YourOwnBiggestFan
#11
TIL about Buy Nothing Day, established to counteract the consumeristic Black Friday
Image source: Lys_456, Brave New Films
#12
TIL of Conrad Veidt, a top 1920s German actor whose wife was Jewish. He refused to renounce her and even claimed to be Jewish in solidarity. In Hollywood, his acting contract said if he played a Nazi, he must be a villain (like he was in Casablanca). He also gave his life savings to the war effort.
Image source: howmuchbanana
#13
TIL of Arthur Stillwell, a young Kansas City entrepreneur who built over 3000 miles of railroad, and founded over 40 towns, and developed a way to to ship live oysters by train, all because the voices in his head told him to.
Image source: rounding_error, Unknown
#14
TIL that the sirens from Greek mythology were never said to be beautiful, or even mermaids. Instead, they were strange human-faced bird creatures who lured men to their deaths by promising them wisdom and knowledge of the future.
Image source: wakeupits2009, ArchaiOptix
#15
TIL that many birds do not breed very well in small flocks and that Zoos use mirrors to help increase reproduction
#16
TIL astronaut Bruce McCandless floated in space completely unattached to anything, 320 feet away from the space shuttle with only a nitrogen jetpack back in 1984.
#17
TIL Vikings believed that there was a goat in Valhalla that supplied an endless supply of beer from it’s udders
Image source: icemage27, Jakob Sigurðsson
#18
TIL that an underachieving Princeton student wrote a term paper describing how to make a nuclear bomb. He got an A but his paper was taken away by the FBI.
Image source: willymakapakaa
#19
TIL in 1999, Microsoft wanted the domain www.Windows2000.com but it happened to be owned by a guy called Bob. Luckily, Microsoft happened to own the domain www.Bob.com. They made a swap, with Bob receiving some “other considerations” as well!
Image source: killahamron, killahamron
#20
TIL in the 1950s, a researcher was designing army airplane seats for an ‘average’ pilot based on measurements from 1000s of airmen, only to discover this theoretical ‘average’ he’d derived wouldn’t fit any of them. This realization led to adjustable seats, foot pedals, helmet straps, and flight suits
#21
TIL that silica gel packets aren’t poisonous. They are labeled “do not eat” because they are a choking hazard.
Image source: beloved_supplanter, pxhere
#22
TIL that one town in Scotland celebrates Halloween on the last Friday of October instead of the 31st since there’s no school or work (for most) the next day.
Image source: ScottyFromScotland, Charles Parker
#23
TIL that in 1859 a 2 hour telegraph conversation between Portland and Boston was able to be had without the use of any battery power. This was due to an aurora borealis generating enough electric current in the telegraph wires.
Image source: bermuda__
#24
TIL that corned beef is named for the large grains of rock salt (also called “corns” of salt) that are used to treat the meat.
Image source: mr_mini_doxie, sk
#25
TIL there are 17 monarchies in the world ruled by a Queen, 16 of those are Queen Elizabeth II
Image source: Icolan, WikiImages
#26
TIL Danish has about 40 different vowel sounds and is so hard to learn that Danish children on average know 30% fewer words at 15 months than Norwegian children and take two years longer to learn the past tense
Image source: bobstonite, RODNAE Productions
#27
TIL that Brussels Sprouts have been selectively bred over the last few decades to taste less bitter, indirectly lessening their anti-cancer properties.
Image source: Overgrown_fetus1305, Eric Hunt
#28
TIL – The oldest wheel was discovered in Slovenia and is over 5,000 years old
Image source: Oldamog, Petar Milošević
#29
TIL jazz guitarist Pat Martino suffered a near-fatal seizure in 1980 which left him with amnesia and no recollection or knowledge of how to play the guitar. He re-learned how to play the instrument, and resumed his performing and recording career in 1987 until his death in 2021.
Image source: Stix_Zidinia
#30
TIL until 1971, the Government of Canada assigned all Inuit people a number in lieu of a surname and issued each a leather disc with the number that had to be carried at all times or sewn into clothing
Image source: MoreGaghPlease, Arthur H. Tweedle
#31
TIL that Cinderella isn’t a real name but was just a nickname for Ella who would be covered in cinders due to having to sleep by the fireplace to keep warm or clean ashes. Most other versions have different variations on a name relating to ashes.
Image source: -Constantinos-
#32
TIL in the midst of Greenland’s pristine landscape lies a U.S. Air Force base which was abandoned in 1947 and everything was left behind; dilapidated vehicles, asbestos-laden structures, and 10,000 leaking fuel barrels. The Inuits who live in the region call the rusted remains “American Flowers”.
Image source: WhileFalseRepeat
#33
TIL: when St. Jerome translated the Bible to common Latin, he made the forbidden fruit an apple as a pun.
#34
TIL that when Leslie Nielsen died, ESPN published an obituary for Enrico Pallazzo, the umpire he played in The Naked Gun
Image source: MayorOfVenice
#35
TIL that during World War 1, the American Expeditionary Forces tried to make the French treat Black soldiers in accordance with Jim Crow laws ”due to concerns that black soldiers and officers working with the French were being treated with too much “familiarity and indulgence.”
Image source: beagleboy167
#36
TIL that “No Country For Old Men” had to suspend production because the crew for “There Will Be Blood” was testing pyrotechnics in the same area and created too much smoke.
Image source: OpulentOwl
#37
TIL that in No Time to Die, the cobbled streets of Matera, Italy did not have sufficient grip for the film’s opening car chase. The crew got around this by pouring Coca-Cola all over the road, making it sticky, and allowing the drivers to perform the stunts.
Image source: chubwhump
#38
TIL in 1972, The Los Alamos National Laboratories patented a nuclear tunnel boring machine, claiming it could reach depths of 18+ miles. It uses molten lithium to melt through rock, leaving behind a tunnel with a glass-like finish.
Image source: Piecesofbits
#39
TIL that in 1952, Stalin proposed German reunification under a “neutral and democratic” government, but was turned down by the West. It is still debated whether the offer was a bluff, a trick, or a genuine missed opportunity for reunification.
Image source: Ganesha811, Unknown
#40
TIL that when Niccolo Tartaglia found a formula to solve certain types of cubic equations, he did not publish his findings. However, Tartaglia wrote a 25 line poem explaining the formula and shared it with another mathematician, Girolama Cardano, who went ahead and published it himself.
Image source: TheTriviaPage
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