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With over 28.6 million members, this Reddit community is not your regular subreddit. Rather, it’s the internet’s beloved powerhouse that celebrates knowledge, curiosity, and intelligence.

By sharing something new to learn every single day, if not hour, Today I Learned has gained a following that keeps Reddit alive and gives our daily browsing the added value we crave.

So this time, we wrapped up a new batch of intriguing tidbits, surprising facts, and little-known bits of history to pour some brain stimuli into our feeds. Pull your seats closer, get your notebooks ready, and enjoy the TIL world right below!

Psst! More of TIL goodness awaits in our previous posts here, here, and here.

To find out more about the benefits of learning new things every day and ways to nurture our curiosity through life, Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and best-selling author of seven books, including a global bestseller Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters. Scroll down to find out what he said!

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#1

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Rip was a stray dog adopted by an Air Raid Patrol in WW2. Although not trained for rescue work, he sniffed out over 100 victims trapped beneath buildings. He was awarded the Dickin medal for his work, which has been held partially responsible for prompting the training of search and rescue dogs.

HoneyGlazedBadger , wikipedia Report

Final score:
557points
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#2

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Ireland limits taxation on writers, artist, composers, painters, etc. for their contribution to culture

Darth_Kahuna , Min An Report

Final score:
547points
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#3

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that scientists trying to study birds in Australia fitted them with tracking harnesses, and the birds helped each other take the harnesses off.

MalC123 , Florian Hahn Report

Final score:
545points
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Dr. Tsipursky explained that one of the most important ways that people's personalities differ from each other is a category called "openness to experience." According to him, it describes people who are more open to learning and trying out new things in life.

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“Openness to experience is one of the ‘big five’ personality traits that research shows fundamentally differentiate people from each other,” Dr. Tsipursky said. “The five personality traits are: openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious); conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless); extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved); agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/rational); neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident).”
#4

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL during a preview of the Sistine Chapel paintings, one of the Pope's men criticized all the "disgraceful" nudity. So Michaelangelo painted the critic's likeness into the Last Judgement, wearing nothing but a snake that's biting his d**k.

Pfeffer_Prinz , wikipedia Report

Final score:
489points
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#5

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Queen guitarist Brian May uses banjo strings on his electric guitars. Banjo strings are much lighter (thinner) and can bend much easier, making that signature Queen sound.

Status-Victory , wikipedia Report

Final score:
449points
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#6

TIL that in Laguna, Brazil, bottlenose dolphins actively herd fish towards local fishermen and then signal with tail slaps for the fishermen to throw their nets. This collaboration has been occurring since at least 1847.

graycatfat Report

Final score:
404points
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The book author claims that openness to experience, just like the other big five personality traits, is a range, not a binary. “Some people are highly curious, some people are moderately curious, some people are not at all curious. You can see this in toddlers - some like to run around and explore their environment, and others sit in the corner and play with blocks.”
#7

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that 65% of cancer survivors surveyed by 'war on cancer' said that they had been ghosted by friends or family after their diagnosis.

Murphyitsnotyou , Jon Tyson Report

Final score:
375points
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#8

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that in 2013 a climber found a box full of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds on a remote glacier on Mont Blanc. Authorities determined they were likely from an Indian plane that crashed there in 1966 and gave the climber half the gems (worth $169,000) to reward his honesty in turning them in.

a2soup , S Migaj Report

Final score:
364points
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#9

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL the New Zealand army helped in making the LOTR films by filling as Soldiers and Orcs

Proud-Equipment3816 Report

Final score:
350points
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When asked how we stay curious throughout life and what are the benefits of it, Dr. Tsipursky said that probably about half of our tendencies to be open to experience come from our genes, and half comes from our life experience and self-improvement efforts.

“That means we can learn to make better decisions when we shape our own personal openness to experience. In the modern world, it pays to be more open to experience than our intuitions suggest. Our intuitions are wired for the ancient savanna, when it was much more dangerous for our survival to be curious than it is right now,” he explained and added that “we should be more curious and stay more open to experience than our intuitions suggest.”
#10

TIL: Researchers in Botswana ran an experiment to reduce lion attacks in cows. They painted large eyes on the cow backsides. After several years, they showed fewer (zero) attacks on the eye-butt cows vs unpainted cows (15).

Geek_Nan Report

Final score:
318points
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#11

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Quaternary Twins are when two babies are both cousins and genetically siblings. This happens when two identical sisters have children with two identical brothers.

Convillious , salyerstwins Report

Final score:
315points
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#12

TIL that Albert Göring, Hermann Göring's Brother, was opposed to Nazism, and helped Jews and others who were persecuted escape Nazi Germany. He died in 1966 never having received recognition for his actions.

Kallipolis_Sewer Report

Final score:
304points
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Many people feel a loss of motivation to explore new things as they age. “Research shows that teenagers are most comfortable with uncertainty, and become less comfortable as they become young adults,” Dr. Tsipursky said.

He continued: “And we become less and less comfortable with uncertainty as we age. We are evolved to be more exploration-oriented when young and when we are finding our place in the world, but our hormones change to cause us to be more oriented toward settling down and seeking comfort and certainty once we are older and find our place in life.”
#13

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL the 1993 Chinese film, "An Old Man and his Dog" was banned in its native country for decades due to the discovery that the dog trainer and body double to the lead actor was a serial killer who fed his victims to dogs, including the ones onscreen.

lsaille1 , Nancy Guth Report

Final score:
297points
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#14

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that urine comes from your blood, not directly from your digestive system.

FutureSkeIeton , HelpStay.com Exchange Report

Final score:
296points
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#15

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL: Steve Jobs offered Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux a job at Apple under the condition he stopped developing for Linux. He declined the job offer.

EngineerMinded , wikipedia Report

Final score:
290points
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#16

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Patricia Stallings was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her infant son under suspicion of antifreeze poisoning before being released due to a biochemist finding that her son had methylmalonic acidemia after hearing about her case on the television series, Unsolved Mysteries.

90PercentCoffee , Robert Laursoo Report

Final score:
287points
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#17

TIL that during a battle with American troops led by Gen. Custer, Chief Sitting Bull moved within rifle range, methodically filled his pipe, encouraged others to join him, slowly smoked as bullets flew by, and returned unscathed as a display of contempt and courage.

attackADS Report

Final score:
286points
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#18

Today I learned that in Central Europe there are hunger stones (hungerstein), in river beds stones were marked with an inscription, visible only when the flow was low enough to warn of a drought that would cause famine.

Eruvan Report

Final score:
270points
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#19

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL of 'Denny', the only known individual whose parents were two different species of human. She lived ninety thousand years ago in central Asia, where a fragment of her bone was found in 2012. Her mother was a Neanderthal and her father was a Denisovan.

Megdatronica , theguardian Report

Final score:
267points
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#20

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that in New Jersey, it is illegal for criminals to wear a bulletproof vest while committing a crime

sheggysheggy , Nur Andi Ravsanjani Gusma Report

Final score:
256points
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#21

TIL that using recycled glass to make new glass requires 40% less energy than making it from all new materials. It saves energy because crushed glass melts at a lower temp than the raw materials. Glass is sometimes recycled into "glassphault" or is used as a landfill covering over waste materials.

frogcharming Report

Final score:
251points
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#22

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Ronald Reagan started eating Jelly Belly's to quit smoking and kept it up so much that during his terms as President he would have more than 300 thousand jelly beans shipped to the White House each month

immaownyou , Steven Lilley Report

Final score:
250points
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#23

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL after tigers escaped from a zoo in Georgia and killed a man, advice was issued on what to do if you meet a tiger, including: don’t approach it, don’t run away, and don’t urinate

pufballcat , Rick L Report

Final score:
239points
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#24

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that Ben Franklin's invention of the lightning rod was blamed by church leaders for the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake off the coast of Colonial Massachusetts — as his "heretical rods" interfered with the "artillery of Heaven" & deprived God of using lightning as "tokens of His displeasure."

zombieinferno , reza jahangir Report

Final score:
231points
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#25

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL Tasmanian Devils bear up to 50 babies, but only have four nipples. The first four babies that successfully make it from the birth canal into the pouch stand a chance of surviving, while the rest die and are eaten by the mother.

thejamescullen , David Clode Report

Final score:
230points
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#26

TIL a "Chernobyl necklace" is a horizontal scar at the base of the throat from surgery to remove thyroid cancer caused by fallout from a nuclear accident

rocklou Report

Final score:
230points
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#27

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL in 2013 in Florida, a sink hole unexpectedly opened up beneath a sleeping man’s bedroom and swallowed him whole. He is presumed dead.

RedditPowerUser01 Report

Final score:
229points
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#28

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that maggot therapy is an FDA approved treatment option for ulcers and wounds to promote healing. Live maggots are placed at the site of injury and eat the necrotic tissue, while also secreting anti-microbial chemicals.

turk_a_lurk , Robert Gunnarsson Report

Final score:
228points
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#29

TIL that due to ADA standards, elevators going up ding once and elevators going down ding twice to help those with disabilities

darpacheetos Report

Final score:
227points
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#30

TIL actor Matt Doherty, who played Les Averman in the Mighty Ducks films, didn't know how to skate or play hockey at all when he was cast in the first movie. By the time they shot the 3rd movie, he was captain of his high school hockey team and had been offered a scholarship to play in college.

CletusVanDamnit Report

Final score:
224points
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#31

TIL animal “zoomies” have a technical name: Frenetic Random Activity Periods, or “FRAPs”

ilovedogsandtits Report

Final score:
222points
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#32

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL about the 1936 presidential election in which Roosevelt received 98.49% of the electoral vote total, which remains the highest percentage of the electoral vote won by any candidate since 1820.

o_ahu , Library of Congress Report

Final score:
215points
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#33

TIL in 2018, a 34-year-old man blew a hole in his throat by holding his nose and closing his mouth while sneezing. The expulsion of air from a sneeze can propel mucous droplets at a rate of 100 mph. He was given antibiotics and put on a feeding tube for 7 days and recovered with no permanent damage.

Str33twise84 Report

Final score:
214points
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#34

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster was Valery Khodemchuk who died as the reactor exploded, his body was never found and is entombed in the wreckage of the Chernobyl power plant

rocklou , wikipedia Report

Final score:
205points
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#35

TIL that there's something called the "preparedness paradox." Preparation for a danger (an epidemic, natural disaster, etc.) can keep people from being harmed by that danger. Since people didn't see negative consequences from the danger, they wrongly conclude that the danger wasn't bad to start with

Choano Report

Final score:
191points
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#36

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) Til wolverine was created because Marvel's then editor in chief Roy Thomas wanted a Canadian hero to boost north-of-the-border sales

JOMO_Kenyatta , Jack O'Rourke Report

Final score:
190points
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#37

TIL that the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft has a replica of Nábrók (or necropants), a pair of pants made from the skin of a dead man or woman, which are believed in Icelandic witchcraft to be capable of producing an endless supply of money.

palimugre Report

Final score:
188points
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#38

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL of the museum infested with the Chilean Recluse spider (Loxosceles laeta), widely considered to be the most venomous of its kind. The museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, is located in Helsinki & no one is sure how the spider, native to South & Central America, came into the museum.

bdrumzzz , wikipedia Report

Final score:
183points
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#39

TIL in 1994, the family of 13-year-old Chris Kirkland made a bet that one day their son would play for Team England, with a bookie giving them 100-1 odds. The bet paid off in 2006, when the goalkeeper played for England in a match against Greece, with the family making £10,000

atomicbolt Report

Final score:
179points
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#40

TIL of Puppy Pregnancy Syndrome, a psychosomatic illness found only in parts of India, where individuals who have been bitten by a dog believe that a puppy is conceived in their abdomen. Sufferers often report seeing the puppy in their reflection, or hearing it growl in their belly.

nickomoss Report

Final score:
176points
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#41

TIL that during World War One up to 12 million letters a week were delivered to soldiers, many on the front line

hariseldon2 Report

Final score:
170points
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#42

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL before Shazam was an app, it was a telephone service which you could call to identify a song. The caller would then get a text message with the song details.

wilymon , cottonbro Report

Final score:
165points
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#43

TIL in 1972, diver Bret Gilliam survived a 325+ ft ascent, with an empty oxygen tank, after trying to save a colleague from attacking sharks.

mmmyesplease--- Report

Final score:
163points
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#44

TIL that the video for Weird Al's "Smells like Nirvana" was shot in the same sound stage as the clip for Smells like teen spirit and also used most of the extras from the original, including the janitor that's featured in various scenes.

AMonkeyAndALavaLamp Report

Final score:
161points
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#45

TIL cheese has morphine-like compound named casomorphin

Anarcheddon Report

Final score:
160points
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#46

TIL House Termites did make it over to England, but a 27 year government funded programme eradicated them in 2021.

enchantedspring Report

Final score:
158points
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#47

TIL that there are only 20 ancient lakes (defined as carrying water for more than a million years) in the world, with only 3 in North America (Tahoe, Tule, Pingualuk). Nearly all are tectonic (i.e. rift zones) in origin, however 2 are from meteorite craters (Pingualuk in Canada, Bosumtwi in Ghana)

Sansabina Report

Final score:
158points
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#48

TIL It took 20,000 hours of underwater repairs but the United States managed to refloat a majority of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor. Recovered ships including the USS West Virginia, USS California, USS Tennessee, USS Maryland, and USS Pennsylvania all fought in the Philippines.

jamescookenotthatone Report

Final score:
143points
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#49

TIL about Project Possible, Nimsdai Purja climbed the 14 mountains that are above 8,000 meters in just Six months.They told Nims his project was simply impossible. So he called it Project Possible. While climbing Kanchenjunga he was partying the night before and was hungover during the climb.

Anthadvl Report

Final score:
141points
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#50

"Today I Learned": 50 Curious Things About The World People Didn’t Learn At School (New Posts) TIL that in 1933, yo-yos were banned in Syria, because many locals superstitiously blamed the use of them for a severe drought.

slinkslowdown , wikipedia Report

Final score:
136points
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Note: this post originally had 104 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.

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