We’ve all had different life experiences, and we have pandas gathering here from all over the world. But one thing we all have in common is an insatiable appetite for learning! So today, we hope to provide you with a tasty treat in the form of fascinating facts you’ve never heard before.
Below, you’ll find some of our favorite recent posts from the Today I Learned subreddit, which celebrates all of the random, niche information that people recently found out, as well as an interview with author Jana Louise Smit. So enjoy learning something new, and be sure to upvote all of the facts that you’re glad you stumbled upon today!
#1
TIL the production for Mork and Mindy had to hire a censor that spoke 4 languages to keep track of Robin Williams secretly trying to slip in swear words in other languages during filming of the show
Image source: Sofasurfarin, ABC
#2
TIL that in 1939, African-American singer Marian Anderson was denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Hall had a white performers-only policy. Anderson responded by giving an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Image source: WouldbeWanderer, U.S. Information Agency
#3
TIL that when a man had a heart attack at a grocery store in rural Minnesota, 20 people lined up and performed CPR on him for over 90 minutes until paramedics arrived – and he survived
Image source: TheSmithySmith, Rama
#4
TIL Crows remember faces and hold grudges
Image source: ohsureyoudo, hedera.baltica
#5
TIL in 2018 a Missouri deer hunter convicted of poaching hundreds of deer was forced to watch the animated film “Bambi” once a month for the duration of his one year prison sentence
Image source: not_a_snapple_fact, Walt Disney Productions
#6
TIL that a Swedish woman found her missing wedding ring, lost in 1995, wrapped around a carrot which she picked from her garden in 2012.
#7
TIL A baboon named Jack officially worked for South African railways (1881-1890) as a signalman and was paid twenty cents a day, and half a bottle of beer each week. Jack never made a single mistake in his entire Railway career.
Image source: yogajogging, Unknown author
#8
TIL of a court in France which stopped a girl being named “Nutella” and forcibly renamed her to Ella in the absence of her parents. The Judge said that the name Nutella would “only lead to teasing or disparaging thoughts,” a complaint not heard by her parents as they did not attend the hearing.
Image source: nightride_dw, ajay_suresh
#9
TIL the oldest Inn (Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan, near Mount Fuji) in the world has been in business 1300 years and in the same family for 52 generations
Image source: Ex1tStrategy, Boltor
#10
TIL that Patrick Stewart, a theater actor, was hesitant to sign a 6 year contract to perform on Star Trek: TNG, but his agent reassured him that the show would probably fail after one season. Stewart expected to “make some money, get a suntan, and go home.”
Image source: WouldbeWanderer, David Shankbone
#11
TIL in the 1970s American authorities along a nonprofit group founded by fishermen, threw around 2 million old tires into the coast of Ft. Lauderdale to create an artificial reef which would help the growth of new coral. Instead they created an ecological disaster.
Image source: Roller-bon45, Navy Combat Camera Dive Ex-East
#12
TIL Dumb Ways to Die, the world’s most shared Public Service Announcement (PSA), hit the internet in November 2012. The public service announcement campaign was launched by Metro Trains Melbourne to promote rail safety.
Image source: elzibet, Metro Trains Melbourne
#13
TIL that vomitoriums in ancient Rome were the exits to stadiums and theaters which spewed crowds into the streets. They had nothing to do with purging to eat more.
Image source: duevigilance, Norbert Nagel
#14
TIL that NASA engineers designed a make up kit because they thought female astronauts would want make up in space
Image source: AccurateSource2, NASA History Office
#15
TIL A Chinese Emperor Jing Ke escaped an assassination attempt by running in circles around a pillar
Image source: VapeThisBro, Unknown author
#16
TIL After eating the “miracle fruit,” very sour foods will taste sweet for 15 to 30 minutes. “Miracle fruit” or Synsepalum dulcificum releases a sweetening potency that alters the taste buds. For about 15 to 30 minutes, everything sour is sweet. Lemons lose their zing and taste like candy.
Image source: Rifletree, Hamale Lyman
#17
TIL If you call 911 by mistake, You should not hang up. Rather you should let the dispatcher know what happened so they know there isn’t an emergency
Image source: Algrinder, Kindel Media
#18
TIL That In 2013, a Florida man, Jeff Bush, was sleeping in his bedroom when a large sinkhole opened up directly underneath his bed, swallowing him and his entire bedroom. His brother heard him scream, but was unable to see or reach him in time. Bush’s body was never recovered.
Image source: FunnyTomatillo9696, ABC Action News
#19
TIL Great White Sharks are not technically apex predators since they are preyed upon by Orcas
Image source: Thylocine, : Pterantula (Terry Goss)
#20
TIL that the neurologist who invented lobotomy (António Egas Moniz) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this highly invasive procedure, which is widely considered today to be one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine.
Image source: TennisMathematician, Unknown author
#21
TIL of a man who was discovered to be unknowingly missing 90% of his brain, and was living a normal life.
Image source: GodIsAnAnimeGirl, CBC
#22
TIL there is a jellyfish whose sting causes feelings of impending doom
Image source: MarvellousG, Nat Geo WILD
#23
TIL that in 1986, Australian cricketer Dean Jones played a match in India while severely ill. Due to the extreme heat, he urinated and vomited several times. He lost 7 kgs during the match and doesn’t remember the game. Jones scored 210 runs, in what is considered one of the best performances ever.
Image source: Top-Ostrich8710
#24
TIL The tallest dam on earth, the Usoi Dam, is not man-made. The dam is a landslide from the 1911 Sarez earthquake that blocked the Murghab River in Tajikistan. In 2015 the dam survived a 7.2 magnitude earthquake with no signs of deterioration.
Image source: jamescookenotthatone, Hausibek
#25
TIL that fossilization is so unlikely that scientists estimate that less one-tenth of 1% of all the animal species that have ever lived have become fossils.
Image source: MamaN00dles, Didier Descouens
#26
TIL that aside vitamin D, the human skin also makes serotonin directly when exposed to sunlight
Image source: kwik_kwek_en_kwak, Anna Tarazevich
#27
TIL in 1981 American Airlines offered a “lifetime unlimited AAirpass” for a lifetime of free first class flights for $250k. You could get an additional lifetime pass for a companion for an extra $150k. Two of their most frequent fliers cost the airline $1m a year and flew over 30m miles.
Image source: BeekyGardener
#28
TIL soon after Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Private Sol Goldberg, with a nearby Canadian unit, smuggled supplies into the camp and used an operating room to illegally treat survivors. He was once caught smuggling supplies into the camp; instead of punishing him, his officers donated more supplies.
Image source: GlitchedGamer14
#29
TIL Nikola Tesla never married, but claimed to have fallen in love with a white pigeon. After its death, he told friends that he felt his life’s work was over. “I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.”
Image source: Jugales, Napoleon Sarony
#30
TIL Philip Ahn was a Korean American actor who played villainous Japanese characters “to the hilt” during the Second World War. Ahn had fun with the parts, when asked to speak Japanese would actually speak Korean and make remarks described as “highly uncomplimentary to the Japanese.”
Image source: jamescookenotthatone
#31
TIL that during the production of Superman(1978), Gene Hackman was reluctant to shave his moustache, only acquiescing when Richard Donner promised to do the same. After getting it shaved, Hackman went to Donner to fulfil his end of the bargain. Donner responded by tearing off his fake moustache.
Image source: Sebastianlim
#32
TIL The Quaker Oats Company financed the original Willy Wonka movie in exchange for the right to make Wonka brand candy bars.
Image source: StereophonicWine
#33
TIL the main reason why Francis Ford Coppola used The Doors’ song “The End” at the beginning of his 1979 film “Apocalypse Now”, was because he found it humorous to use a song titled “The End” at the start of the movie.
Image source: waitingforthesun92
#34
Til- The division of the hour into 60 minutes and of the minute into 60 seconds comes from the Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (counting in 60s) system for mathematics and astronomy. They derived their number system from the Sumerians who were using it as early as 3500 BC.
Image source: The13thReservoirDog
#35
TIL there are cave drawings that are 65,000 years old, made by Neanderthals, much older than the oldest human cave drawings (30,000 years ago) in France.
Image source: SunlitNight, P4K1T0
#36
TIL that despite many variations on which technologies are allowed, practically all Amish have adopted the use of motorized washing machines
Image source: xxwarlorddarkdoomxx
#37
TIL: The descendants of Genghis Khan (1162 — 25 August 1227) continued to rule parts of Central Asia for 700 years until the 1920s, when they were conquered by the Bolsheviks and their states became part of the Soviet Union.
Image source: Other_Exercise
#38
TIL scientists from Newcastle University discovered that honeybees become ‘pessimistic’ after being shaken vigorously for 60 seconds.
Image source: Lupercali, Conall
#39
TIL about Tangier Island, a community of ~500 off the coast of Virginia that live on a sinking island and speak a unique form of Old English
Image source: INGWR, Seriousresearcher13
#40
TIL According to a study, East Asians are capable of digesting seaweed because their gut bacteria went through repeated “genetic upgrades” that enabled them to digest and absorb seaweed.
Image source: oliphi
#41
TIL Karl Bushby – a British ex-paratrooper – set out to walk around the world in 1998. He’s currently at the Iranian border.
Image source: pablo_pick_ass_ohhh
#42
TIL that there are only two known parchment manuscripts of the United States Declaration of Independence. One is in US National Archives and the other is in the archives of West Sussex County Council. No one is sure how it got there.
Image source: EssexGuyUpNorth
#43
TIL ancient geographers knew that Earth was a sphere but there was intense debate on the question if the opposite side of the planet is also inhabited by humans (called Antipodeans). Most thought that Antipodeans do not exist because intense heat at the equator forms an impassable barrier.
Image source: SvanteArrheniusAMA
#44
TIL about Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent regarded as the most damaging spy in U.S history. He made an average of $67,000 a year selling thousands of top secret documents to Russian intelligence for 22 years. The ex-KGB agent the FBI hired to catch him was paid $7 million.
Image source: DPRoberts1987
#45
TIL that in Ancient Rome, citizens and soldiers drank an average of 100 gallons (~450 litres) of wine per year
Image source: NeverTouchMyHair, Commonists
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