There are roughly over 7 million English language Wikipedia articles out there, a factoid that you deploy if you need to drop a fun fact, while also a good indicator of just how much information is out there. It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that it would take multiple human lifetimes to read every single one. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to learn.
So we’ve once more assembled and collected the most interesting “Today I Learned” facts from the shortest month of the year. Get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and if you have any gems to share, be sure to write them out in the comments section down below.
#1
TIL the actor who played Furio in the Sopranos spotted an incorrectly labeled painting at an auction. He purchased it for $68,000 and later had it correctly appraised for $10 million.
Image source: asteroid_9, Guercino
#2
TIL Canadians sent 5 tonnes of maple syrup to thank a Norwegian coach who gave a Canadian skier a spare pole after she broke hers mid-race, which led to Canada winning a silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Image source: planetcosmic, Nadine Primeau
#3
TIL a Dollar General employee who was told she couldn’t keep drinks at the cash register was fired after taking and drinking a $1.69 orange juice to stave off diabetic shock. Despite her paying for the orange juice afterward, the company said she was ‘grazing’. Later, a jury awarded her $277,565.
Image source: Forward-Answer-4407, Mikhail Nilov
#4
TIL a Burger King cook (who’d worked there for 24 years) was fired for taking home a sandwich, fries & a drink after her manager claimed she had only asked permission for a sandwich & accused her of stealing. However, a judge ruled that the cook did not intend to steal the food & awarded her $46,000
Image source: tyrion2024, Mike Mozart
#5
TIL 7-year-old Bonnie Lohman went to the store with her stepdad & saw her own face on a milk carton. She asked to keep the image & was allowed to on the condition she kept it a secret. However after her neighbors saw the image & reported it, she learned that her mom had kidnapped her when she was 3.
Image source: tyrion2024, news.com
#6
TIL Apple recently paid $95 million because Siri was caught eavesdropping on private conversations, like doctor visits and illegal deals, then sending those recordings for human contractors to listen to. Siri was triggered not just by “Hey Siri,” but by phrases that sounded similar like “seriously.”
Image source: UsualOkay6240, Eren Li
#7
TIL that the movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” was supposed to be rated NC-17 due to excessive profanity, with the f word being used 146 times alone. The MPAA said that 400 or more swear words would get the NC-17 rating, so Matt Stone and Trey Parker cut the number in script to 399
Image source: altrightobserver, Comedy Central Films
#8
TIL that in 2011, a woman drowned and remained at the bottom of a busy Massachusetts public pool for two days, hidden by cloudy water
Image source: EradiK8, Megan Bucknall
#9
TIL that playing high-level chess causes players to burn calories at an athletic rate. For example, 21-year-old Grandmaster Mikhail Antipov was recorded burning 560 calories in just two hours of sitting—roughly what Roger Federer would burn in an hour of singles tennis.
Image source: ralphbernardo, cottonbro studio
#10
TIL a woman nicknamed the ‘Rooftop Ninja’ lived for about a year inside a sign on the roof of a Family Fare grocery store in Midland, Michigan. Inside the sign, she had a computer, printer, desk, and coffee maker. She was discovered by a contractor who noticed an extension cord running into the sign
Image source: Forward-Answer-4407, tenpoundhammer
#11
TIL: Takeout and Delivery now account for 75% of all restaurant orders.
Image source: Uptons_BJs, Mizuno K
#12
TIL in “Cast Away”, none of the sound on the island scenes is real. The loudness of ocean waves on the actual unhabited island they were filming on was so overwhelming that every sound on the island and ocean scenes, including Tom Hanks’ monologues, were carefully recorded in a studio.
Image source: leebe_friik, ImageMovers
#13
TIL about the Matilda effect. It’s a phenomenon where the achievements of women scientists and inventors get attributed to men.
Image source: Karthak_Maz_Urzak, Mikhail Nilov
#14
TIL that the Switzerlands largest supermarket Migros, doesn’t sell alcohol or tobacco in stores, pays no dividends, caps profits by lowering prices if earnings exceeds 5%, is a cooperative with 2M+ members, and donates 1% of revenue to social projects, purely out of the founders moral philosophy.
Image source: QuarterTarget, Chad Davis
#15
TIL before 9/11, US airports were public social hubs where you could walk to the gate, eat at food courts, and watch planes without a ticket or ID.
Image source: Greydl1, Adrian Agawin
#16
TIL … about the Rice Hypothesis which posits cultures that engaged in wet rice farming that requires coordinated irrigation and synchronized planting tend to be collectivist while wheat farming cultures evolved to be more individualistic.
Image source: pomod, hartono subagio
#17
TIL The 2021 Razzie Awards had a special category for “Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie,” with all eight of his performances that year being nominated. Four days after the awards ceremony, Willis’ family announced his aphasia diagnosis.
Image source: ThomasTheDankPigeon, Gage Skidmore
#18
TIL we know where China’s first emperor is buried, but his 2,200-year-old tomb—described as containing a scale model of China with rivers of mercury—has never been opened.
Image source: Spelbarg, Unknown
#19
TIL after a man fell in the snow in his backyard & broke his neck, his dog helped save his life by keeping him warm and alert by lying on his body and licking his face & hands for 20 hours until a neighbor finally stopped by and rushed him to the hospital. After surgery, he was able to walk again.
Image source: tyrion2024, McLaren Northern Michigan
#20
TIL that Kansai International Airport in Japan reached its 30th year of service without having ever lost a single piece of luggage.
Image source: Bob_the_blacksmith, inunami
#21
TIL that moon dust (lunar regolith) is electrically charged and will stick to anything it comes into contact with. It’s also likely toxic to humans. Apollo astronauts regularly complained of coughing, watery eyes, throat irritation and blurry vision after each foray onto the moon’s surface
Image source: MrMojoFomo, Neil A. Armstrong
#22
TIL Takeru Kobayashi retired from competitive eating because he says he no longer feels hunger or fullness.
#23
TIL the “Invisible Gorilla” experiment which fooled most people. In a famous 1999 study, participants watched a video of people passing a basketball and were asked to count passes. Midway through, a person in a gorilla suit walked through the scene and half of participants didn’t notice the gorilla.
Image source: Jockey2, internets_dairy
#24
TIL that salted raw celery used to be the third most popular dish on New York menus and more expensive than caviar due to issues with growing it.
Image source: Sanguinusshiboleth, Monika Borys
#25
TIL that 44% of the world’s adult population has never consumed alcohol
Image source: JoeyZasaa, kaboompics
#26
TIL about Odin, a dog who refused to evacuate during the 2017 California wildfires. When his owners returned days later, they found him alive and still guarding his entire flock of 8 goats
Image source: No-Reflection-2718, Roland Hendel
#27
TIL about the “McEmbassy.” Every McDonald’s in Austria has a 24-hour hotline to the US Embassy to help American travellers who are in distress or have lost their passports.
Image source: SnooConfections3389, U.S. Embassy Vienna
#28
TIL In Portugal it’s illegal for your boss to call outside work hours. The employer must respect the privacy of the worker, including periods of rest and family time. Any violation, it constitutes a serious offense and could result in a fine.
Image source: rustyyryan, Tima Miroshnichenko
#29
TIL Christopher Columbus made significant errors in estimating the distance to Asia. If the Americas didn’t exist, then he’d have ran out of food and passed long before reaching Japan.
Image source: NorthKoreanMissile7, Sebastiano del Piombo
#30
TIL a man forgot that he had stashed $100,000 inside a 1980s TV set until the cash was returned to him 30 years later after a recycling plant worker dismantled the TV and found it. The man had forgotten the cash was inside the TV when he gave it away to a family friend many years earlier.
Image source: tyrion2024, ruocaled
#31
TIL some dogs have shown spontaneous empathy in Harvard lab experiments, approaching and trying to “help” humans who pretended to be in pain.
Image source: Mastbubbles
#32
TIL that “black boxes” on airplanes are legally required to be orange.
Image source: One_Acanthaceae9174 , NTSB
#33
TIL that human bone is as strong as steel but 50 times lighter. Pound for pound, our bones are actually 4 times stronger than concrete.
Image source: bareegyptianfeet
#34
TIL that people who sleep on their left side report nightmares more frequently,while right side sleepers tend to experience calmer,more pleasant sleep.
Image source: Successful-Talk1830, Andrea Piacquadio
#35
TIL about a soda machine offering ‘mystery’ drinks operated for nearly 20 years, but no one knew who operated it or kept it stocked.
Image source: anganeonnumilla , Another Believer
#36
TIL about Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, a hypersensitivity to the fear of being rejected by others, which is commonly connected to ADHD.
Image source: learnaboutnetworking
#37
TIL French scientist Étienne Klein was criticized after sharing a fake image of Proxima Centauri that turned out to be chorizo
Image source: Brendawg324
#38
TIL that up until the past year, Oscar judges DID NOT have to watch the movies they were giving the awards to.
Image source: GossipBottom
#39
TIL Elijah Wood revealed in a 2021 interview that he still hadn’t finished reading The Lord of the Rings
Image source: RunDNA
#40
TIL Fred Collins went to visit his brother at the Straight Inc. program, a teen rehab, but before he was allowed to, he was “screened” for any substance issues. After he admitted smoking the devil’s lettuce, they held him against his will for 10 months before he finally escaped. He then sued them & was awarded $220,000
Image source: tyrion2024
#41
TIL Peter Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin was extremely pleased with how the film came out, got along well with the cast, and his only regret was that his character passed and he couldn’t appear in the sequels.
Image source: Please_PM_me_Uranus
#42
TIL that Cancún didn’t exist until 1970, its location was chosen using early computer models to identify a suitable place for a new resort city. The area had only three residents at the time.
Image source: RuseOwl
#43
TIL that as a child, Charles Dickens worked 10-hour days in a London boot-blacking factory – a trauma he later called the deepest shame of his life, but one that forged his strict 9–2, five-hour writing discipline and his life-long refusal to let his own children work.
Image source: Upstairs_Drive_5602
#44
TIL Dr Pepper is not a cola, root beer, or fruit-flavored soft drink, but instead belongs to its own category called “pepper sodas”, named after the brand itself
Image source: RiverMesa
#45
TIL Even though Pedialyte is marketed towards children, over a third of sales come from adults with hangovers.
Image source: redmambo_no6
#46
TIL that there was a popular myth in many muslim majority countries that Neil Armstrong had converted to Islam upon hearing the call to prayer on the moon, going as far to require the US state department to issue a denial
Image source: Solid-Move-1411
#47
TIL Weird Al was set to a series of Star Wars parody sketches where he would interact with the movie via green-screening, but Mark Hamill refused to allow usage of any footage with him in it, despite already getting approval from Lucas and Alec Guinness, so the idea was scrapped
Image source: robotco
#48
TIL that Detroit, once America’s 5th largest city at 1.85 million residents in 1957, saw 66 straight years of population loss to a low of 630,000 residents in 2022. This makes it the only US city to drop below 1 million after reaching it. It would see its first reversal of this trend in 2023.
Image source: Next_Worth_3616
#49
TIL that Stellen Skarsgard suffered a stroke in 2022, which affected his memory. Because of this, he had been forced to wear an earpiece with his assistant feeding him his lines for his recent films.
Image source: Sebastianlim
#50
TIL that Magnus Carlsen, one of the greatest chess players of all time, has never lost 3 or more classical chess games in a row in his adult professional career. The last time he lost 3 games in a row was in 2003, when he was 12.
Image source: 4isfourwastaken
#51
TIL that a mummified carrier pigeon discovered in a UK chimney in 1982 was carrying an encrypted D-Day message from 1944 that has never been decoded. Britain’s intelligence agency is still seeking the public’s help in deciphering it.
Image source: moose098
#52
TIL Kidney (and other organ) donations typically do not last the rest of the patient’s life. ~50% of transplant organs fail within 10 years.
Image source: y I-plaey-geetar
#53
TIL of the “sterile cockpit” or “sterile flight deck” rule. When an aircraft is operating during a critical phase of the flight (anytime they’re below 10,000 feet), the crew is only allowed to engage in conversation related to the safe operation of the aircraft
Image source: MrMojoFomo
#54
TIL an audit at the University of North Carolina found that one of its most reliable servers had been walled off for 4+ years without anyone even noticing
Image source: trashatdev
#55
TIL about the concept of “gardening” in the field of cryptography: acting in such a way as to induce your enemy to send messages containing a known string, to assist in decryption.
Image source: CommercialContent204
#56
TIL when South Korean students take their college eligibility test every November, day-to-day operations are halted or delayed on test day. Shops are shut, banks close, even the stock market opens late. Most construction work halts, planes are grounded and military training ceases.
Image source: gullydon
#57
TIL that under a law called the Berry Amendment, the U.S. Military is legally required to ensure 100% of its clothing is made in America. Every stage of production, from the raw cotton or wool to the zippers, buttons, and even the thread, must be 100% U.S. sourced and manufactured.
Image source: palmerry
#58
TIL Family Guy was cancelled – then later revived because DVD sales were unexpectedly huge
Image source: Alternative-Win4058
#59
TIL that rapper J. Cole graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA and graduated college magna cum laude, in 2007, with a 3.8 GPA
Image source: luigdibar
#60
TIL students invented a low-cost “invisibility coat” that hides the wearer from AI security cameras. It uses a camouflage pattern to trick visual recognition during the day and emits unusual heat signals to confuse infrared sensors at night.
Image source: ralphbernardo
#61
TIL that in 1994, an American teenager in Singapore pled guilty to stealing road signs and vandalizing cars. He was sentenced to 6 lashes of a cane, which was reduced to 4 after media outrage in the US
Image source: Overall-Register9758
#62
TIL the Australian Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn (Raygun) threatened legal action against an Aussie musical about her because the musical planned to use her stage name and “kangaroo hop” dance move. The musical continued after changing the characters’ name to Sprachel Gunn, AKA Spraygun
Image source: AssassinSnail33
#63
TIL about 85% of the dialogue in This Is The End (2013) was improvised, whereas, around 95% of the dialogue in Superbad (2007) came directly from the script. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg cowrote both movies together.
Image source: tyrion2024
#64
TIL two studies both found that most people stop listening to new music in their early 30s. A 2015 study of people’s listening habits on Spotify found that most people stop listening to new music at age 33 and a 2018 report by Deezer found it be to at age 30.
Image source: tyrion2024
#65
TIL the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States are less than 100 miles apart.
Image source: MaximusSydney
#66
TIL that out of the six Marines depicted in the iconic “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” photo, only three of them would survive the battle.
Image source: iydx_7737
#67
TIL that curry was brought to Vietnam by French colonisers when they also colonized Pondicherry in India. Curry was adapted to Vietnamese tastes by adding coconut milk and lemongrass.
Image source: Physical_Hamster_118
#68
TIL that people consistently underestimate how much their personality will change in the future, a bias known as the “end of history illusion.”
Image source: stammerton
#69
TIL during a menstral cycle, the entire uterine lining can shed in one large piece that resembles the uterus. This is known as a decidual cast.
Image source: guardiandoggo
#70
TIL that an Englishman named Collingwood Ingram helped reintroduce an extinct Japanese cherry tree after recognizing it in a painting, having seen the same tree growing in England
Image source: Climatize
#71
TIL: Nickelback’s How You Remind Me was the most played song on US radio that decade. It was played over 1.2 million times on the radio between when it was released in 2001 to the end of 2009
Image source: Uptons_BJs
#72
TIL that in 2013, Jennifer Lopez became the first major Western star to perform in Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive countries in the world, to sing “Happy Birthday” to its leader.
Image source: Greydl1
#73
TIL in 1996 a 37-year-old woman survived after she crushed a whole black widow spider, mixed it with 10 mL of distilled water and then injected the mixture intravenously. One hour later she presented to the ER complaining of severe, generalized muscle pain & cramping, a headache, and anxiety.
Image source: tyrion2024
#74
TIL that in the 16th century, Spain discovered a mountain of almost pure silver in Bolivia (Potosí). They mined so much of it that they accidentally caused massive hyperinflation across Europe, making their own currency worthless and bankrupting the Spanish Empire multiple times.
Image source: Prestigious_Mine_321
#75
TIL Katy Perry’s halftime performance at Superbowl XLIX that saw the Seahawks and the Patriots face off in 2015, was seen by more people then the general game itself.
Image source: AnonRetro
#76
TIL that one of the reasons why trash cans are scarce in Japan is due to the 1995 Sarin Gas Attack where the Aum Shinrikyo cult hid Sarin Gas – a toxic chemical – in trash cans at Tokyo subway. In response, many public trash cans were removed as a precautionary measure to prevent similar attacks.
Image source: Nice-Confusion-4781
#77
TIL: The fastest mile by a human is 3.28.36 minutes on a down hill asphalt course in New Zealand by Kenyan Mike Boit.
Image source: OOOOOO0OOOOO
#78
TIL that Ice T is currently the longest-running male actor in US primetime TV history for his role as Odafin Tutuola on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, a role he has played since 2000.
Image source: astarisaslave
#79
TIL that “42% Of People Don’t Know Potato Chips Are Made From Potatoes”, thanks to a survey by Lay’s parent company, and as a result “Made With Real Potatoes” is now printed on the bags.
Image source: Jackpot777
#80
TIL in 2011 an emperor penguin named Happy Feet arrived in New Zealand after swimming about 2K miles from Antarctica. He is the second emperor penguin ever to be found in NZ (first was in 1967). At the beach he ate sand, likely mistaking it for snow, and needed 4.4 lbs of it removed from his stomach
Image source: tyrion2024
#81
TIL about the Kumari of Nepal, young girls who, before their first period, are worshiped as living goddesses. The girl chosen to be the Kumari of Patan (the most important Kumari except for the royal Kumari) in 1953 never had her period and served until 1984, when she was replaced against her will.
Image source: Ill_Definition8074
Follow Us
