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When I studied for school, I used to spend hours re-reading the given material. I thought that the more information I read, listen to or watch, the more things I'll learn. Interestingly, our brains actually learn better when the information is divided into short 3-7 minute chunks.
The same goes for short, bite-sized nuggets of info you can find on the TIL subreddit. Our planet is so big and complex; it's no wonder that we can never know everything about it and the people who inhabit it. But we might try to get as close as we can, so, here's a collection of the newest cool and weird facts from the internet's vault of knowledge.
More info: Reddit
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#1
TIL Danny Trejo has a clause in his movie contracts that requires his villainous characters to die by the end of the film. He wants children to learn that crime doesn't pay.
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#2
TIL about skeuomorphism, when modern objects, real or digital, retain features of previous designs even when they aren't functional. Examples include the very tiny handle on maple syrup bottles, faux buckles on shoes, the floppy disk 'save' icon, or the sound of a shutter on a cell phone camera.
#3
TIL George Washington decided to step down after two terms because he feared he might die in office and Americans would then view the presidency as a lifetime appointment
Let's go through some of the most interesting TIL facts, shall we? And let's start with a fun fact about vehicle inspection in the U.S. Apparently, only 10 states have mandatory vehicle inspections. That's Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and South Carolina.
As of 2025, Texas said "goodbye" to annual safety inspections as well. This applies to non-commercial drivers only, and the logic is that it's the owner's responsibility to ensure that the car is safe to drive. However, in some counties, folks will still have to pass emissions inspections if they have a gasoline-powered vehicle.
#4
TIL Charles Darwin created the office chair, he put wheels on the bottom of his chair so he could roll between specimens.
#5
TIL: The "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" was declassified in 2008 and it contains advice on how spies can sabotage the enemy by just being maliciously incompetent. Advice include praising inefficient coworkers, cry and sob frequently at work, asking inane questions in meetings, and spreading gossip.
#6
TIL that Great White Sharks across the Pacific Ocean consistently congregate at one specific spot in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists call this the White Shark Cafe.
Tucker Cahooter 1 day ago
I hope that spot is nowhere near the New South Wales south coast thank you very much
Another interesting fact about the family who couldn't sleep comes from Redditor u/Potatoe_expert. Science writer and author of the book about said family The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery D.T. Max told NPR they suffered from fatal familial insomnia. Currently, there are about 200 families in the world that have this disease, he says.
Other sources guess that around 50-70 families in the world carry the gene for fatal familial insomnia. This genetic condition is, unfortunately, incurable, and treatment can only slow down its progression. What makes it fatal is the damage to the brain and the nervous system from lack of sleep. Their brains can't recharge and, therefore, can't function normally.
#7
TIL in 2010 a doctor and his son just happened to be walking by an apartment building in Paris when a 15-month-old boy fell 80ft (24m) from a seventh floor balcony before bouncing off a cafe awning into the doctor's arms. His catch helped the boy escape "miraculously without a single scratch."
Tucker Cahooter 1 day ago
Now the memory of the "Bouncing Babies" DOS game has resurfaced in my mind
#8
TIL that Weird Al's Phantom Menace parody 'The Saga Begins' was recorded a month before the film released in May 1999. Yankovic was denied an early screening by Lucasfilm, but managed to almost exactly piece together the plot by researching rumours posted on Star Wars fan forums.
#9
TIL huge rogue waves were dismissed as a scientifically implausible sailors' myth by scientists until one 84ft wave hit an oil platform. The phenomenon has since been proven mathematically and simulated in a lab, also proving the existence of rogue holes in the ocean.
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 1 day ago
Wasn't confirmed until 1995 100 miles off the coast of Norway. The QE2 was also hit by a 95ft wave during Hurricane Luis the same year.
You'd probably think that two siblings would get the same ancestry results, but Mother Nature has some tricks up her sleeve. We inherit half of our DNA from our father and the other half from our mother. Unless we're identical twins, we won't have identical DNA. In fact, siblings can share as little as 37% or as much as 65% of their genetic variants.
#10
TIL that Elton John never performed the Princess Diana version of Candle in the Wind again after her funeral in 1997, despite receiving numerous requests.
#11
TIL Siblings can get completely different results (e.g., one 30% Irish and another 50% Irish) from DNA ancestry tests, even though they share the same parents, due to genetic recombination.
#12
TIL South Park aired an episode titled “Band in China”… which resulted in them being banned in China.
When in 2019, the creators of South Park aired an episode titled "Band In China," the whole show was banned in the country. The episode criticized the way US media accommodates Chinese censorship laws, with one character saying: "It's not worth living in a world where China controls my country's art." The apology from the creators only angered the country further, as they likened Xi Jinping to Winnie The Pooh and wrote: "We too love money more than freedom and democracy."
#13
TIL Tasmanian Devil's give birth to between 30 and 40 offsprings but the mother only has four teats. The first four to attach to teats survive, the others perish.
#14
TIL life didn't give us lemons, they are not naturally occurring. They are a hybrid fruit from selective breeding of the citron and the bitter orange
#15
TIL Mihailo Tolotos was a Greek Orthodox monk that died without ever seeing a woman. He lived all his 82 years of life in Mount Athos monastery
This fun fact should be really interesting for Trekkies. The creator of Star Trek: The Next Generation Gene Roddenberry didn't want to cast Patrick Stewart as the iconic Jean-Luc Picard. He wanted Picard to be "a handsome adventurer," similar to William Shatner's Captain Kirk, eyeing the actor Patrick Bachau for the role. Today, we probably couldn't imagine anyone else as Picard, so, kudos to Sir Patrick Stewart!
#16
TIL the term 'jaywalking' was promoted and popularized by the automobile industry to blame pedestrians for traffic issues.
#17
TIL in 2013 a woman went to pick up a friend in Brussels (less than 90 miles from her home), however because of a GPS error, she ended up in Croatia after driving 900 miles across five international borders. She realized she took a wrong turn two days after leaving. Her son had reported her missing.
#18
TIL - the family that couldn't sleep, a family in Venice, Italy where for over 200 years many of the family members died suffering from fatal insomnia.
As a person who knows next to nothing about baseball, I was quite impressed to learn that the ball is thrown at such a speed that the eye can't track it. The fastest MLB pitcher in history is Aroldis Chapman. His pitch was recorded at 105.8 mph (that's 170 km/h!) in 2010. Ben Joyce was the fastest pitcher in 2024 when he threw a 105.5 mph strikeout and currently enjoys third place after Chapman.
#19
TIL In 1941, prior to widespread fluoridation of drinking water, almost 10% of US military recruits were rejected because they didn’t have 6 opposing teeth in their upper and lower jaws
#20
TIL the United States Army is the largest single employer of musicians in the country
#21
TIL there were just 5 surviving longbows from medieval England known to exist before 137 whole longbows (and 3,500 arrows) were recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose in 1980 (a ship of Henry VIII's navy that capsized in 1545). The bows were in excellent finished condition & have been preserved.
If you need more motivation to get off the couch and start strength training, here's your chance. Not only can you grow bigger muscles, but you can bolster your nervous system as well. A stronger nervous system enhances our coordination and balance, increases our muscle strength, and improves our memory, attention, and executive function. Time to hit the weights, huh?
#22
TIL that after George Harrison's death from lung cancer, his widow sued a doctor at the hospital where he received radiation therapy for allegedly forcing Harrison to listen to his son play guitar and autograph the guitar while lacking his mental faculties.
Bat cat in a hat 18 hours ago
I've never heard about this indeed and had to double check, very unprofessional indeed: "Olivia Harrison filed a lawsuit against Dr. Gilbert Lederman, who treated George Harrison at Staten Island University Hospital. The lawsuit alleged that Dr. Lederman coerced George Harrison into signing a guitar for the doctor's son and having to listen to an impromptu concert by the doctor's son while Harrison was severely ill. The lawsuit eventually got settled with an agreement that the signed guitar and autographs would be disposed of privately."
#23
TIL that “court jesters” were often used to give bad news to the monarch that no one else would dare deliver. When the French fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Sluys, Phillip VI’s jester told him that the English sailors “don’t even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French”
#24
TIL after Leona Helmsley did not pay her contractors that worked on her Connecticut home, she was investigated for tax evasion, and she received a 16 year sentence. During trial her housekeeper testified that Helmsley said "only the little people pay taxes." She ended up serving 19 months in prison.
This Redditor who proclaimed that life didn't give us lemons was half right. Lemons are hybrids of sour oranges and citrons, but they aren't man-made. The hybridization happened thousands of years ago naturally, with bees carrying the pollen between sour oranges to citrons. Humans did, however, eventually start cultivating them and growing them in large amounts.
#25
TIL in 2020 a woman took an online DNA test which showed a 22% match with a man who she'd eventually discover to be her still alive uncle, who was kidnapped in 1951 at the age of six & had been missing for 70 years. After he was abducted in Oakland, he was flown to the east coast & raised there.
Foxglove🇮🇪 16 hours ago
I remember that story, the old man got back to his family a year or two ago.
#26
TIL that in Major League Baseball the ball is pitched so fast that the eye cannot track it. However, the brain is able to calculate its trajectory via specialized cells, making it possible for the batter to hit it.
#27
TIL Robert F. Kennedy's assassin is still alive and has been denied parole 17 times
Perhaps you've heard of the White Shark Cafe, the spot in the Pacific Ocean where Great White Sharks like to come together annually. But do you know why they do that? In 2018, a team of researchers found out that the sharks flock there to feed on light-sensitive animals like phytoplankton, squid, and small fish. UNESCO's World Heritage Center also wants to make the White Shark Cafe a World Heritage site, but they still need authorities to demonstrate its biological importance.
#28
TIL that Gene Roddenberry originally did not want to cast Patrick Stewart as Picard, since he had envisioned an actor who was "masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair".
#29
TIL 10 US states have absolutely no vehicle inspection whatsoever (i.e no safety, emissions, or VIN inspections)
Montanavanna 1 day ago
When I moved to Idaho from Montana my insurance went down almost $200 a month. Because of all the laws and inspections.
#30
TIL that the first laws outlawing food coloring were in regards to bread. White bread was expensive and some bakers added chalk to lighten dark bread. King Edward I (1272-1307) created a law saying anyone caught using whiteners in bread would be put in the public pillory for one hour.
How many new things have you learned today, Pandas? Share your favorite TIL facts from this list with us in the comments. And if you have any interesting nuggets of knowledge you think should be there, write them up in the comment section as well! Or, if you're hungry for some more TIL knowledge, head over here, here, and here to see our previous compilations from the TIL subreddit.
#31
TIL Geysers are quite rare, requiring a combination of water, heat, and fortuitous plumbing. Yellowstone National Park is home to half of all the geysers found in the world.
#32
TIL If you've believed in good faith for at least five years that you're a Swiss citizen and local authorities have treated you as such, you can apply for simplified naturalisation.
#33
TIL in 2023, Zimbabwe signed control over almost 20% of the country's land to Blue Carbon, an Emirati company, for $1.5 billion. The company seeks to conserve forests that might otherwise be logged.
#34
TIL that eminem is first rapper to reach 50 million pure album sales.Physical albums sold, excluding digital downloads and streaming.
#35
TIL strength training also involves the nervous system, where your strength is not only determined by how big your muscles are, but by how well the nervous system can recruit muscles, synchronize their firing, and prevent mechanisms designed to prevent your body from tearing itself apart.
afia kooma 1 day ago
Tetanus makes your musckles so stiff thst they break the bone supporting them
#36
TIL About a man named Heshen who was known as the most corrupt official in Chinese history. After his death in 1799, his personal wealth was valued at $270 billion, or 15 years of Qing government revenues
#37
TIL every person who has become a centibillionaire (a net worth of usually $100 billion, €100 billion, or £100 billion), first became one in 2017 or later except for Bill Gates who first reached the threshold in 1999.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 day ago
Guess what also happened in 2017. Those Trump tax cuts were so great /S. I hope they make them forever instead of letting them expire this year when they ABSOLUTELY SHOULD!
#38
TIL the total number of Americans over 7-feet tall is estimated between 85 and 150.
#39
TIL Pope Pius XII once asserted in a speech that the Big Bang theory scientifically proved that the universe was created by a divine creator. Horrified, the physicist Georges Lemaître convinced the Pope not to make any further statements connecting his theory and theology.
Adam Jeff 18 hours ago
Lemaitre was himself a catholic priest, but he believed that science and religion were separate fields, and it was wrong to look for scientific truths in scripture or to use science to 'prove' religion. Perhaps surprisingly, after meeting Lemaitre the pope was convinced and never made the claim again.
#40
TIL about 'Balconing' in Ibiza, a phenomenon in which intoxicated party goers die or are injured by acting wildly on the balconies of the hotel establishments where they have stayed
Note: this post originally had 78images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
What do you think ?
MindNumbinglyBoringJob 15 hours ago
That was very interesting. It did not annoy me like the am I the AH posts or the fake stories.
afia kooma 2 hours ago
QI, TV show has at least half of these on their show. If you like conedians and knowledge, you should check it out. Its on youtube
Load More Replies... MindNumbinglyBoringJob 15 hours ago
That was very interesting. It did not annoy me like the am I the AH posts or the fake stories.
afia kooma 2 hours ago
QI, TV show has at least half of these on their show. If you like conedians and knowledge, you should check it out. Its on youtube
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