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As one version of the proverb says, "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back." Seeking out answers and explanations is human nature. And now, being curious is easier than ever, thanks to the Internet. Whether by chance or intentionally (there are about 99,000 Google searches every second), we run into new information every day. But not all of it is exciting or worth sharing.

If you're on the lookout for already filtered interesting facts, the "Today I Learned" (TIL) subreddit is here for you. For years, this has been one of the biggest subreddits, and over 26.5M curious people have joined the community by now. The members of this group are doing us a community service by sharing the coolest tidbits of information that they run into. Ancient history, immortal animals, or current affairs that are flying under the radar, this group is as surprising as it is educational, and we love it.

Our curious pandas gathered another list of fascinating facts that I'm sure will broaden your horizons. And if you have anything that you think more people should learn about, please don't hesitate to share it in the comments. Be sure to upvote your favorite facts, and if after reading this you're eager for even more, you can find our previous articles here, here, and here!

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#1

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Andre Agassi won 10 of 11 matches after seeing a "tick" in Boris Becker's serve. Agassi could predict where Becker was serving based on whether Becker stuck his tongue out in the middle of his lip or to the left corner of his lip. Agassi told Becker over a pint of beer - after they retired.

theotherbogart , Akademan Report

Final score:
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#2

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL composer Andre Tchaikovsky requested his skull be donated to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in theatrical performances. In 2008, David Tennant used the skull in Hamlet.

runixracoon , BBC Report

Final score:
481points
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federicocantoni avatar
Jrog
Jrog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mind you, it's not the famous Tchaikovsky of Swan's Lake fame (that would be Pyotr Ilyich). Andrè Tchaikovsky is a moderately successful post-war pianist, mostly famous for the skull story.

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#3

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Actor Kevin Bacon pays off DJ’s when he attends weddings so that they won’t play “Footloose.”

LazeLinez , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
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#4

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL that the longest running lab experiment is the Pitch Drop experiment. It demonstrates how tar is the most viscous liquid being 100 billion times more viscous than water. Only 9 drops have fallen in the 95 years since it began in 1927.

Sensitive-Ad9508 , John Mainstone Report

Final score:
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Chich
Chich
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They have a live feed, Only 8ish years to go. Grab the popcorn. http://thetenthwatch.com/feed/

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#5

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL that one of the rarest Yu-Gi-Oh cards in existence is Tyler the Great Warrior. It was created by Tyler Gressle, a boy that had a rare form of liver cancer. He got to create his own card through Make-A-Wish Foundation and they printed one card just for him. He made a full recovery.

nejicanspin , Make-A-Wish Foundation Report

Final score:
433points
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#6

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL after a seizure left him paralyzed except for his left eyelid, Jean-Dominique Bauby (1952-1997) wrote the bestselling book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by blinking to select each letter as an assistant recited the alphabet to him.

chumloadio , Jean-Louis Sieff Report

Final score:
409points
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waddles
waddles
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

she did all this work just to be called “an assistant”

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#7

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL in 1822 a stork arrived in Germany with an arrow through its neck. The wood was from central Africa, over 3000 miles away. This convinced zoologists that birds migrated in the winter, and disproved other theories such as underwater hibernation, or transformation into other animals (like mice).

Pfeffer_Prinz , Zoologische Sammlung der Universität Rostock Report

Final score:
400points
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#8

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Tomatoes are native to the Americas, so there was no such thing as tomato sauce in Italy until at least the 16th century.

ExplicitlyMellow , Greta Hoffman Report

Final score:
369points
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Greta Kolding
Greta Kolding
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Knowledge is to know that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is to refrain from putting it in the fruit salad.

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#9

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL an Iowa Supermarket employee went missing in 2009 while at work, only to have his decomposed body discovered in a gap between a freezer and a wall 10 years later in 2019.

just2good , Northwest Retail Report

Final score:
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Nathaniel
Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No one noticed the smell? The back of the freezer would be hot? Would he not have been cooked?

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#10

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL that photographer Carol Highsmith donated tens of thousands of her photos to the Library of Congress, making them free for public use. Getty Images later claimed copyright on many of these photos, then accused her of copyright infringement by using one of her own photos on her own site.

Lagavulin16_neat , Carol M. Highsmith Report

Final score:
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James016
James016
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nice show of greed there from Getty. How were they even allowed to claim copyright?

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#11

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL sleep helps clean our brain. Or in the words of the journal Science, “Observations showed that when mice sleep, channels between neurons in their brains expand, allowing cerebrospinal fluid to flush out detritus, such as proteins that in human beings are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Cute_Umpire , Ivan Oboleninov Report

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#12

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL in response to infamously high suicide rates at Mapo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea, the bridge was adorned with suicide prevention messages and uplifting photos. These measures weren't enacted by the government, however, instead the entire project was financed by Samsung's life insurance division.

evilclownattack , skytetes Report

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Green Tree
Green Tree
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Samsung is about 1/5th of South Korea’s total economy and essentially runs the country

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#13

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Lobsters don’t die of old age due to an enzyme called ‘telomerase’ that increases the number of divisions their cells can make, allowing them to repair their bodies and live extraordinarily long lives.

unswsydney , Bart Braun Report

Final score:
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#14

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL there is a mall in the capital of the country Moldova called Malldova.

Brainbus , Photobank MD Report

Final score:
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#15

TIL: In Australia there are 'Firehawks', which are birds that intentionally set forest fires as a hunting technique

Forward-Dog-1761 Report

Final score:
264points
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#16

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL In 1965, an excavation team discovered the Sword of Goujian in a tomb in Hubei, China. Encased in a nearly air-tight wooden box next to a skeleton. The sword is over 2500 years old but was in perfect condition, test affirmed that the blade could easily cut a stack of twenty pieces of paper.

MightGuy420x , Siyuwj Report

Final score:
262points
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#17

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Playing too much tetris can result in the "Tetris effect" where after playing a lot of Tetris you see tetris pieces falling when you close your eyes.

ketaminekid , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:
251points
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Vinchenski
Vinchenski
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I actually had this once but with that Candy Crush game when it first came out. I got that addicted, I was sitting in a meeting at work one day and distinctly recall seeing a candy crush level in my head and trying to work it out. I missed a good 5 minutes of the meeting until I snapped myself out of it. Never played it again. That freaked me out.

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#18

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL the true story of Moby Dick. A whale sunk a crew’s main ship - leaving 3 sailboats. They’d live if they sailed to a nearby island. Out of fear from (false) stories of cannibalism, they tried going back to the mainland. In tragic irony, they got lost at sea and had to resort to cannibalism.

anon , Augustus Burnham Shute Report

Final score:
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Scott
Scott
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The part that always got me about it is the island they were closest to but chose to avoid due to fear of cannibalism were the Marquesas, which are now seen as tropical paradises. Also, I'm related to George Pollard, the captain of the Essex, as well as Owen Coffin, who was Pollard's cousin and eaten by the survivors. There's an amazing book about it called "In the Heart of the Sea."

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#19

TIL that the first person ever diagnosed with autism is still alive

New_Blacksmith_115 Report

Final score:
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Corvus
Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Before we began to better understand autism, children on the spectrum were generally treated as being "unruly" or "problematic", which only made their lvies more miserable...

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#20

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL when snowflakes hit water they create a screeching sound too high for humans (but not some sea animals) to hear. When a flake hits the water, an air bubble is released that oscillates in the 50-200 khz range well above a human's range. Snow hitting water can increase underwater sound by 30 db.

Black_Magic_M-66 , Rachel Claire Report

Final score:
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#21

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL the average gas pump handle is almost 12,000 times dirtier than the average public toilet seat.

corn_dog_22 , Mike Mozart Report

Final score:
229points
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#22

TIL: Traditionally Japanese do not eat salmon sushi and it was invented in the 80's by the Norwegians to to try to sell more of their over abundance of Salmon.

greenappletree Report

Final score:
226points
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#23

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Hong Kong digs up the dead after 6 years for cremation due to lack of space.

siva-pc , Rob Young Report

Final score:
223points
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#24

TIL like "R.I.P." many ancient Romans had "NFFNSNC", non fui, fui, non sum, non curo, inscribed on their graves meaning “I was not; I was; I am not; I do not care”. A epicurist philosophy.

gonejahman Report

Final score:
210points
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Jrog
Jrog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

R.I.P does NOT stand, as many believe, as "Rest in Peace". It stands for "Requiescat in pace", that is Latin for rest in peace. Due to the coincidence of the first letters being the same in English and Latin, many people think the acronym stems from the English phrase, while it actually dates back to a dozen centuries before the creation of English language.

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#25

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL The inventor of the television was a 15 year old farm boy who got the idea for scanning an image in rows from the back and forth motion of plowing a field.

chapstickninja , Harris & Ewing Report

Final score:
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Corvus
Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I watched a documentary about it - he came up with the idea, but the all the credit went to the rich businessman with powerful connections, who used the technology illegally to make the first broadcasts.

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#26

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL that Over 50 percent of the world's population relies on rice for 80 percent of it's food requirements.

guitar_jed , Polina Tankilevitch Report

Final score:
200points
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Tom Hardeveld
Tom Hardeveld
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

50% of statistics are wrong, and that is only half of it

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#27

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL In the UK, the distinction between an actor and an extra is defined by agreements between the actors trade unions and the various commercial production bodies. These state that once a performer says 13 or more words in any scene, they must become a contracted actor in that production.

twoshillings , upyernoz Report

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Jaaawn
Jaaawn
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandmother and I were extras in a BBC period drama series. It was so fun, like travelling back in time for a few days!

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#28

TIL of Viktor Belenko, the Soviet pilot who defected with the MiG-25 (most advanced Soviet interceptor of its time), who initially assumed that his CIA handlers were keeping him in an elaborate tourist trap made to impress foreigners because he couldn't comprehend the sheer abundance he was seeing.

sexyloser1128 Report

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HARRY KOPPERS
HARRY KOPPERS
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

one thing that convinced him to defect was that the US had a Communist party (touted in the USSR press) but the USSR didn't allow a Democratic party.

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#29

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Velcro is actually a brand name, and they launched campaigns to get people to stop saying "Velcro". The correct term is actually "hook and loop".

KingKult , Velcro Report

Final score:
188points
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Garett Auriemma
Garett Auriemma
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Kleenex, Photoshop, Xerox, Frisbee and Google say “good luck.”

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#30

TIL that the common LED light was awarded a Nobel Prize. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources

VickyWelsch Report

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#31

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL that alcohol consumption in the U.S. was almost 300% higher in the 1800s, and that whiskey at the time was cheaper than beer, coffee or milk.

johntentaquake , Open Grid Scheduler Report

Final score:
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Colin Matthews
Colin Matthews
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Its largely because many of the others weren't as common as today, and water wasnt always reliably clean

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#32

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL Very little of Franz Kafka's works were published during his lifetime and he burned 90% of his work. Works like The Trial and The Castle were saved when the executor of Kafka's will ignored Kafka's request to have his remaining works destroyed.

jamescookenotthatone , kafkamuseum Report

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#33

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL A $250,000 diamond placed on the nose of an F1 car was lost in a crash in the 2004 Monaco GP. It's still missing today.

erockskop , Formula1 Report

Final score:
158points
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Nathaniel
Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Probably an insurance scam, there is a reasonable theory about it that did the rounds.

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#34

“Today I Learned”: 35 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics) TIL the Wright Brothers were perpetual bachelors, and that Orville Wright disowned their sister Katherine after she married and had a family of her own, feeling he had been "betrayed".

thefuckouttaherelol4 , Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright Report

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#35

TIL that turkeys can sometimes reproduce asexually, forming near-clones of themselves.

WaryLouka Report

Final score:
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Nathaniel
Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know a lot of people who should try reproducing asexually. They should certainly go f**k themselves.

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