TIL a British nurse named Edith Cavell helped treat soldiers regardless of their nationalities in WWI. She also helped them escape from German occupied Belgium. When caught, she refused to lie about her actions and was executed by firing squad.

TIL three 13 year old girls submitted a script for "Tiny Toon Adventures". Producer Steven Spielberg was so impressed that he invited the girls to Hollywood to work on the episode and paid them $3,000. This later inspired a Simpsons episode where Bart and Lisa write an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon.

TIL Windsocks are calibrated to visually show wind speed as well as wind direction. They are designed such that each inflated red/white stripe indicates a 3 knot increase in wind speed to a maximum of 15 knots.

TIL about Richard Rowland Kirkland, a Confederate soldier who risked his life to tend to wounded soldiers from both sides of the Civil War in the middle of battle at Fredericksburg. Both sides held their fire as they watched him help every wounded soldier regardless of allegiance.

TIL at G.E. in the 1920s, as a joke, newly hired engineers would be told to develop an inside frosted lightbulb, which was believed to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment, and astonished his peers by succeeding.

TIL that since 2014, Paul Rudd and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have been co-owners of Samuel's Sweet Shop, a candy store in the town of Rhinebeck, New York. They saved it from being closed after the previous owner, a friend of theirs, died suddenly.

TIL the prevailing theory behind why humans like music is that we learn patterns and regularities within music, and we unconsciously predict what will come next. When we are right, our brain gives us a dopamine rush. Thus the constant dance between expectation and outcome is pleasurable to us

TIL the only U.S. Secret Service officer killed protecting a president is Leslie Coffelt. Shot three times in the abdomen, he fired one round and hit Truman's attempted assassin in the back of the head from 31 feet away with his revolver.

TIL instead of “They lived happily ever after”, German fairytales end with “if they haven’t died, then they are still living today.”

TIL Japan's reputation for longevity among its citizens is a point of controversy: In 2010, one man, believed to be 111, was found to have died some 30 years before; his body was discovered mummified in his bed. Investigators found at least 234,354 other Japanese centenarians were "missing."

TIL Pumpkins evolved to be eaten by wooly mammoths and giant sloths. Pumpkins would likely be extinct today if ancient humans hadn't conserved them.

TIL that basketball Hall of Famer George Raveling volunteered as security during MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Immediately after the speech he asked MLK for the original typewritten manuscript, which he gave him. He still has it and has refused offers of more than $3,000,000 for it.

TIL there is a species of sheep that survives completely on seaweed. on the island of north ronaldsay in scotland, a wall was built around the island to protect crops from sheep grazing, limiting them to the shoreline where they have adapted to survive.

TIL To promote the Smurfs (2011) movie, Sony temporarily painted the traditional "pueblo blanco" town of Juzcar, Spain to a bright blue. The residents were so happy with the increase in tourism afterwards that they elected to keep the change permanently.

TIL that Japanese pro wrestler Rikidōzan often went to the bar immediately after his matches, without treating his wounds first. When patrons asked him why his face was bloodied, he'd reply "I had a tough day at work."

TIL that astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson received large amounts of hate mail from children after declassifying Pluto as a planet.

TIL the secret formula for WD-40 is stored in a bank vault and has only left it twice; once was on its 50th birthday when the CEO of WD-40 rode through Times Square on a horse with a suit of armor on and the formula in hand

TIL after a Polish Admiral of German descent Józef Unrug was taken prisoner during WW2, his former Imperial German Navy friends came to visit him. Unrug refused to speak German with them, saying that he had forgotten that language in September 1939 the day Germany invaded Poland

TIL leaving cookies and milk for Santa started to become popular in the U.S during the Great Depression. Parents wanted to teach their kids it was better to give and to be grateful for presents they received during times of economic hardship.

TIL some Buddhist monks attempt to mummify themselves alive—and at least two dozen have succeeded. The process involves eating only pine needles, resins & seeds to eliminate all body fat, and then slowly reducing liquid intake to zero, thus dehydrating the body and shrinking all organs, until death.

I was today years old when i realized that Little Caesars' toga has an L and C for Little Caesars

TIL that the voice of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, Paul Winchell was one of the original inventors of an artificial heart, an automobile that runs on battery power, a method for breeding tilapia, and many other inventions that are still around today.

TIL that Ronald Reagan won 49 states and 525 electoral votes in the 1984 presidential election which is the most in history.

TIL Bogs are Ireland’s original refrigerators. And they are pretty good—even 3,000-year-old bog butter is edible. We know this because archeologists tended to eat it. The secret is the anaerobic nature of the bog. Without oxygen, neither the butter nor its wooden container decomposes.

TIL clue used to be spelled "clew". This was due to clew meaning "a ball of twine" which was symbolic of following the string through a maze and helping find "the way" or "an answer".

TIL Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of World War II, suffered from battle fatigue for the rest of his life. He endured chronic insomnia and recurring nightmares, and kept a loaded pistol under his pillow. He eventually took to sleeping alone in his garage with the lights on.

TIL that in the late 90s with millions in the bank, David Lee Roth became a state-licensed EMT who went on hundreds of calls

TIL research shows that mirrors in public places like retails stores will improve customer behavior by increasing self awareness. You won't act like a jerk if you had to watch yourself doing so.

TIL in 1900, a sealed cave was discovered in China's Gansu province containing 1,100 scrolls and 15,000 Buddhist texts. Believed to have been sealed around 1002, the last recorded date, the cave contained lost texts and the earliest dated printed book, a copy of the Diamond Sutra printed in 868.

TIL The first Native American who met the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony walked into their encampment and greeted them in English. Which he had begun to learn from fishermen frequenting the waters of Maine. Supposedly, he greeted them then asked if they had beer.

TIL Mel Gibson could not get any studio to fund 'Passion of the Christ'. Instead of scrapping the film, he chose to finance it all by himself, an action which analysts labelled as "idiotic". He spent $45M on the project and went on to make over $475M because he didn't have to split the profits.

TIL almost all shells open on the right-hand side, with the exception of a few snail species whose shells open on the left. If you find a shell that opens on the left (as long as it's from a normally right-hand species), you have a rare shell sometimes highly sought by collectors.

TIL when the Union abandoned a fort in Florida, they left behind a single soldier as caretaker. When the Confederacy marched on the fort, the lone soldier refused to surrender without a receipt for the fort. He received one, and the fort was taken without a shot fired.

TIL On a visit to Constantinople Samuel Colt gave a custom gold inlaid revolver to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and informed him that the Russians were buying his pistols. The Turkish ordered 5,000 pistols. Colt neglected to tell the Sultan that he had used the same tactic with the Russians.

TIL on Disneyland's opening day in 1955, an invitation-only crowd of 15,000 was expected, but thanks to counterfeit tickets, 28,154 entered the gates. A few more even scaled a fence, using a ladder erected by an entrepreneur who charged $5 a head. On the Santa Ana Freeway, there was a 7-mile backup

TIL octopuses have 2/3 of their neurons in their arms. When in captivity they regularly occupy their time with covert raids on other tanks, squirting water at people they don't like, shorting out bothersome lights, and escaping.

TIL Jackie Chan sang "I'll Make a Man Out of You" for the Mandarin AND Cantonese versions of Mulan (1998)

TIL there is a Star Wars fan edit that exists- The Phantom Edit, which was intended to improve on Episode I- The Phantom Menace. Changes included the removal of "Jar Jar Antics," trimming politics scenes, removing dialogue related to midi-chlorians, and removing "yippee," from Anakin's dialogue.

TIL that the AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas changes the gender signs on bathrooms based on the gender makeup of a crowd. This allows them to provide more female or male bathrooms depending on the event. It also prevents long lines for bathrooms.

TIL about "Homegrown National Park," an effort to encourage Americans to plant as many native plants as possible everywhere on their property to help bring back the continent's biodiversity

TIL that on the night that MTV launched, the opening sequence for the network featured footage of the Apollo 11 launch, simply because it was public domain and free to use. It was that opening sequence that connected MTVs image with astronauts, including the Video Music Award “moon man” trophy.

TIL Clara Blandick, known for her role as Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz, committed suicide in 1962 following a period of poor health. Before dying, she arranged her room with photos, memorabilia and press clippings from her career, and dressed in a royal blue dressing gown with her hair styled.

TIL the 7-minute long shot in the Charlie Work episode of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" was entirely filmed by camera operator Adam Sklena, without dolly tracks or a rig. "This is a man holding a camera who had to walk backwards—and we got it without screwing up on take 1," said Charlie Day.

TIL President Andrew Jackson was gifted a 1,400-pound block of cheese by a New York dairy farmer. The cheese remained on display at the White House for over a year but was entirely eaten by a large crowd during Jackson's final party as President.

TIL that the speed of light was first estimated in 1676 by a Danish Astronomer who was timing the eclipses of Io caused by Jupiter. He noticed the period between eclipses increased with Earth's distance from Jupiter and guessed it was because light had to travel a longer distance.

TIL in 1817 a woman posed as the fictional Princess Caraboo of Javasu. She fooled a small British town for months into believing she was a princess who had been captured by pirates, jumped overboard in the British Channel and swam ashore. She was later recognised as a cobbler's daughter from Devon.

TIL when Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon, guest starred in The Simpsons, writers were concerned he would be offended by his line, "second comes after first," and offered an alternative- "first to take a soil sample." However, Aldrin preferred the original line, and it remained in the script.

TIL: The Diderot Effect is obtaining a new possession which often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled

TIL that the filmmakers for ‘The Blair Witch Project’ saved money by returning the video camera to Circuit City after they were done filming

TIL that llamas that spend too much time around humans are prone to BERSERK LLAMA SYNDROME. Such llamas believe that humans are fellow llamas, and sneak up behind them to attack.

TIL that it took 32 years to officially clear the parents in the famous “dingo took my baby case”. The mother spent three years in jail until evidence supporting their defense was found by chance. They ultimately received $1.3M for wrongful imprisonment, less than 1/3 of their legal fees.