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50 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn At School And Decided To Share Them In This Online Group (New Pics)
Nobody has all the answers. Except for the internet.
Today I Learned, or "TIL," is a subreddit for people to share tidbits of information that may not be widely known, but that others may find fascinating. Often with accompanying pictures, too.
While these factoids may not be newsworthy or highly beneficial to our everyday lives, they at least produce a genuine "Oh, I didn't know that, how cool!"
About every two weeks, we at Bored Panda go through the subreddit and handpick a selection of posts we find to be the most interesting and worthy of your time. Below, you will find what we have in store for you this time. To view our earlier pieces on the subreddit, go here, here, and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL In the 1936 Olympics two Japanese pole vaulters (Shuhei Nashida & Sueo Oe) tied for second. Declined to compete against each other, Nashida was awarded silver and Oe bronze. On return to Japan they had the medals cut in two & joined together to make two 'friendship medals' out of silver & bronze
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#2
TIL a homeless man found a 10 000$ check on the street meant for a real estate broker and found a way to return it. So, touched, the broker awarded him a place to live and arranged for a job interview. A year later, he was on the board of directors of one of their foundations.
#3
TIL During World War II, an American lieutenant, realizing his position was inundated with enemy troops, called in an artillery barrage on himself. Following a US counterattack later that day, the lieutenant's body was found alongside approximately 100 German soldiers. His name was John R. Fox.
Geralt of Rivia 3 years ago
And he didn't get honors until 1996 when his family was awarded his medals and compensation they should have received long time ago.
#4
TIL When his owner died in August 1936, Shep the Dog followed the casket to the railroad station and watched it being loaded onto a train heading to the eastern US. For six years until his own death, he would greet every train that arrived each day, expecting his master to return.
#5
TIL that on October 18, 1963 French scientists launched a rocket into space, containing a cat named Felicette. She orbited close to 100 miles above earth, then descended safely to the ground via a special parachute. Felicette has the high honor of being the only cat launched into space thus far.
#6
TIL Nordic countries have a "Freedom to Roam", allowing people to enjoy all nature regardless of ownership (within reason)
#7
TIL Michael Jackson was a virtuoso composer, despite being unable to read music or play instruments well. He wrote the parts to his songs by singing and beatboxing into a tape recorder. “He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything."
#8
TIL that in 1986 an astronomer trying to trace a 75 cent computer time discrepancy for 10 months eventually found a German hacker selling defense secrets to the KGB
#9
TIL spiders tune their webs like guitar strings, tightening and loosening strands so they can read the different frequencies caused by intruders and determine where/how big the intruders are, if they are predator or prey, or if they’re just a potential mate flirtatiously strumming their strings.
#10
TIL Neuroscientists have found evidence to suggest feeling powerful dampens a part of our brain that helps with empathy. Even a small amount of power can have this effect on someone
#11
TIL about the Japanese national pillow fighting tournament. The pillow fighters start by pretending to sleep on futons. But when the whistle sounds, they spring to their feet and race to get a pillow. A mix between dodgeball and chess, teams throw pillows at each other while protecting the 'King'.
#12
TIL when former NFL safety Dave Duerson took his life he left a note that read, “Please see that my brain is given to the NFL’s brain bank.” He shot himself in the chest rather than his head so as to preserve his brain. Doctors confirmed that he was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
sofacushionfort 3 years ago
Can we rename the game "Spinal Battering Ram" instead of football, considering the percentage involved in the former far exceeds the latter?
#13
TIL Nic Cage once crashed a Nic Cage film festival, watched 4 of his own films, did a 47-minute Q&A and read a 10-minute short story
#14
Today I learned Dana Carvey underwent heart bypass surgery for a blocked coronary artery, but the surgeon operated on the wrong artery. Eventually he won a lawsuit against the hospital and won 7.5 million dollars, all of which was donated to charity.
#15
TIL when sonar was first invented, operators were puzzled by the appearance of a ‘false seafloor’ that changed depth with the time of day and amount of moonlight. It was eventually identified as a previously unknown layer of billions of lanternfish that reflect sonar waves and migrate up and down.
Wouldiwas Shookspeared 3 years ago
I know this comment adds absolutely nothing but that is really really cool
#16
TIL Charles Barkley was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital in Leeds, Alabama and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school.
#17
TIL Owls’ ears are placed asymmetrically – at different heights on the sides of their faces – so the sounds reach each ear at different times. This is essential to identifying the exact direction of their prey.
#18
TIL Poland sent the US a birthday card with 5.5 million signatures to mark the 150th anniversary of the US in 1926.
#19
TIL that in 1948 the Nobel Committee did not award the Nobel Peace Prize on the grounds that “there was no suitable living candidate”, implying that Mahatma Gandhi would have received it if it were not for his assassination earlier that year.
ProfessionalTimeWaster 3 years ago (edited)
The more I read about Gandhi's life, the less I feel he deserved it. The more I read about who have been awarded Nobel Peace Prize, I feel it would have not been outrageous to award him. He was good at speeches that mobilized people but he had a "my way or highway" kinda attitude. Despite his powers, he did little to stop partition of India or the manner it was done, which eventually resulted in the death of millions.
#20
TIL there is such a thing as Earl Grey tea intoxication, where drinking 4L per day causes extensive muscle cramps and blurred vision. Cutting down to 1-2L makes the symptoms go away.
Isabel Frost 3 years ago
Not sure who's drinking a LITER of tea per day, much less FOUR. Seriously, how did they find this out?
#21
TIL that in 1648 an angry mob of Parisians once broke into the royal palace, demanding to see the king. They were led into the bedchamber of Louis XIV, who was pretending to be asleep. Satisfied, the mob quietly departed.
#22
TIL in the 1900s the Austerlitz family in Omaha, Lutheran German emigrants, moved to New York City in hopes of finding fortune through their children's vaudeville talents. The son wore a top hat and studied tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances. He would become Fred Astaire.
Julia Atkinson 3 years ago
Fred's sister Adele was also a big star in their stage act. She married a younger son of the Duke of Devonshire and became the sister-in-law of Kathleen Kennedy and Deborah Mitford.
#23
TIL Hummingbirds are one of the fastest animals on Earth relative to their body size. They can cover more body lengths per second than any other vertebrate and for their size can outpace fighter jets and the space shuttle – all while withstanding g-forces that would make a fighter pilot blackout.
#24
TIL many people in ancient Rome who were among the educated elite were aware that lead was poisonous and some of these people even tried to make others aware of this.
#25
TIL Baby horses are born with "feathers", AKA faery fingers or golden slippers (real name eponychium). They protect the mother's uterus during gestation and birth canal during parturition from damage from the otherwise sharp and dangerous hoof kicks. They harden and fall off very soon after birth.
#26
TIL When the doctor Alois Alzheimer wanted to share in a meeting his findings of the Alzheimer patology, the attendees where uninteresed and skipped the questions because they were hurried to go to the next talk that was about "compulsive masturbation".
François Carré 3 years ago
Years later they all suffered from Alzheimer pathology, and the only activity they would remember and practice properly was compulsive masturbation.
#27
TIL that when the allied forces were at the edge of the city, Hitler ordered the destruction of Paris. The Nazi commander of Paris couldn’t bring himself to execute the order and surrendered the city a few days later.
#28
TIL that In 1979, two families escaped East Germany in a homemade hot air balloon. They flew for 28 minutes at −8 °C with no shelter as the gondola was just a clothesline railing. They landed just 10km from the border. The escape was planned out over 1 and 1/2 years and took 3 attempts.
#29
TIL that P.T. Barnum's famous elephant Jumbo got his name from the Swahili word for chief. It was the elephant who caused the word "jumbo" to mean something large - not the other way around.
Sheila Stamey 3 years ago (edited)
.My SOs great great great grandfather started J&P Coats Thread Co. in Coats NC. it was later bought out and created Coats and Clark thread which was the largest sewing thread producer in the world for a very long time. This was an ad from the extremely early days and actually does depict "Jumbo" (see the little notation) and in fact reflects the public fascination with elephants at the time. (Yes I was corrected by SO, this ad is in his hometown museum!) If you notice the logo in the lower left this elephant is "restrained" by J&P COATS thread. This is the original logo!
#30
TIL: The United States Department of Defense runs Linux. "In fact, the US Army is the single largest installed base for RedHat Linux and the US Navy nuclear submarine fleet runs on Linux"
#31
TIL that guitarist Eddie Van Halen was half Indonesian, and that his family immigrated to the United States because of how badly his mixed-race parents were treated in the Netherlands.
#32
TIL that there is more water in the vapor and clouds above the Amazon rainforest than there is in the Amazon river
#33
TIL in Scandinavia the Kiruna to Narvik electrified railway carries iron ore down a steeply graded route. On the way down the trains generate large amounts of electricity by regenerative braking, which is sufficient to power the empty trains back up the track and pump excess energy into the grid.
M O'Connell 3 years ago
The eMining AG "eDumper" mine truck uses exactly the same concept, and one truck saved 50k liters of diesel per year at a mine in Switzerland.
#34
TIL that in 2016 a research ship was named The RRS Sir David Attenborough. An internet poll to suggest the name of the ship showed the actual winner was the name "Boaty McBoatface," but the Science Minister wanted a "more suitable name" and chose a different name from the poll's choices.
#35
TIL that 10s of farmers die each year from Grain entrapment, which is when a person is partially or fully submerged in grain, and cannot get out without assistance. In 2019, 67 incidents of grain entrapment took place, of which 39 were fatal.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
There has to be a way to prevent this from happening. Or is there a way and the farmers ignore it?
#36
TIL of all the gold medals won by US swimmers in the history of the Olympics, nearly 10% were won by Michael Phelps. (23/246)
#37
TIL in 1990 Marilyn vos Savant wrote about the "Monty Hall problem" in her column in Parade magazine, correctly answering the statistical brainteaser. Thousands wrote to her to insist she was wrong, including many people with PhDs. Mythbusters even confirmed she was right in a 2011 episode.
#38
TIL that In 1889 a lion escaped from a travelling show in Birmingham and ran into the sewers. When an angry mob formed, Frank Bostock, the owner secretly snuck another lion out the back. He then returned with the lion clearly visible and was hailed a hero. The escaped lion was still in the sewers!
Mad Dragon 3 years ago
It took 500 members of the police force descending into the sewer , but the lion was recaptured 24 hours later. This particular lion (Wallace) escaped several times and killed at least three men and several horses while he was on the loose.
#39
TIL about “formaldehyde hunger” a well-known phenomenon in anatomy labs where med students get hungry while dissecting cadavers, allegedly due to formaldehyde being an appetite stimulant.
#40
TIL The population of Rio de Janeiro was so unsatisfied with its politicians during the election of 1988, that a well-known local monkey from a zoo received over 400,000 votes.
#41
TIL that unlike terrestrial mammals, whales do not have a connected mouth and respiratory system. They do not and cannot breathe through their mouths.
#42
TIL for centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland sheltered Jews persecuted and expelled from various European countries. About three-quarters of the world's Jews lived in Poland by the middle of the 16th century.
Gin. No tonic 3 years ago
In Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth religious freedom was official since 1573, but practiced for centuries before that, because it was a multicultural country with people of different faiths (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim). The King (Poland) and the Grand Duke (Lithuania) invited tradespeople and soldiers from other countries to immigrate for work, granting religious and cultural freedoms in exchange for having good workers.
#43
TIL Elizabeth Swaney, a relatively amateur skier, was able to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics halfpipe by accumulating points at qualifying events leading up to the Olympics by doing flawless yet completely simple routines, outscoring opponents who often would crash in their more-ambitious runs
This is how her performance looked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e1eh4dk2b4&ab_channel=LesGoGoals
In comparison, this was the level of her competitors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgIDsIdBTGo&ab_channel=Olympics
#44
TIL Charles Dickens' father was imprisoned when he was boy for unpaid debts. At the age of 12, Dickens' was forced to leave school and work 10-hour long days at a warehouse for 6 shillings per day.
Daniel Atkins 3 years ago
That would explain why most of his heroes started out poor or wen to debtors prison as in Little Dorrit
#45
TIL that during the 1870s, 16 Black Members held seats in Congress—14 in the House, two in the Senate, and each one a Republican from the South with Hiram Revels of Mississippi having been appointed the first Black Senator in February 1870
Dave P 3 years ago
That was because when this happened (BTW between 1866-1875, many White Southerners in certain states couldn't vote because they refused to take a loyalty oath to the US, so Southern States elected Black Members to Congress, their State Legislatures, even governors. Bascially most of the voters were Black People who were now free and elected other Black People. Once Whites got the vote back, things started to roll back.
#46
TIL The only copies of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Beowulf" are unique manuscripts that came from the same private library -- both were nearly destroyed in a fire in 1731.
#47
TIL The famously large President Taft followed a weight loss program. Taft was in contact with Dr. Yorke-Davies for over twenty years and kept a daily record of his weight, food intake, and physical activity. Taft managed to go from 340 to 244 pounds and walked 3 miles to the Capitol every day.
#48
Til the Ford Model T, of which Henry Ford famously said "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." was not painted black because it was cheaper, more the fact black paint dried quicker, speeding up the manufacturing process.
Michael Beswick 3 years ago
But speeding up the manufacturing process makes the process cheaper!?
#49
TIL the opening crawl to Star Wars begins with a storybook-esque narration ("A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....") because George Lucas first imagined his films as stories being told by an ancient race of immortals. The immortals were written out for early films, but this vestige remained.
#50
TIL the oldest woman to climb El Capitan is the mother of Alex Honnold (of Free Solo fame) who did it at the age of 66. Her first time in a climbing gym was when she was 57.
What do you think ?
Faith Hurst 3 years ago
I love how these are always called "Things I didn't learn in school" as if school was supposed to teach you about Nicholas Cage, etc.
Menthe Litchi 3 years ago
I totally agree with you. I am a teacher and I am SO tired of this. Children are at school 24h per week. So 144 hours per week at home. We teach French, Maths, English, History, Geography, Sport, Music, Arts, Sciences. And of course social behaviour because they do not learned at home how to say "good morning, thanks, please". So sorry we do not have time to teach them everything else.
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John Montgomery 3 years ago
Is there a setting I'm missing for the bored panda app? This has no pics for me. It's just the text.
Lyn Moffett 3 years ago
John. When you are reading the captions there is a little chain link at the bottom of it. Press on that and it will take you to the story and any pictures if there are any included.
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Alloydog 3 years ago
C'mon Bored Panda, stop recycling other internet sites' content! I subscribe to Reddit's TIL and read it several times a day. Most of these have been lifted from there and in pretty much the same order.
Celtic Pirate Queen 3 years ago
Try actually reading the article instead of just looking at the pretty pictures.
Load More Replies... Faith Hurst 3 years ago
I love how these are always called "Things I didn't learn in school" as if school was supposed to teach you about Nicholas Cage, etc.
Menthe Litchi 3 years ago
I totally agree with you. I am a teacher and I am SO tired of this. Children are at school 24h per week. So 144 hours per week at home. We teach French, Maths, English, History, Geography, Sport, Music, Arts, Sciences. And of course social behaviour because they do not learned at home how to say "good morning, thanks, please". So sorry we do not have time to teach them everything else.
Load More Replies... John Montgomery 3 years ago
Is there a setting I'm missing for the bored panda app? This has no pics for me. It's just the text.
Lyn Moffett 3 years ago
John. When you are reading the captions there is a little chain link at the bottom of it. Press on that and it will take you to the story and any pictures if there are any included.
Load More Replies... Alloydog 3 years ago
C'mon Bored Panda, stop recycling other internet sites' content! I subscribe to Reddit's TIL and read it several times a day. Most of these have been lifted from there and in pretty much the same order.
Celtic Pirate Queen 3 years ago
Try actually reading the article instead of just looking at the pretty pictures.
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