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“Today I Learned”: People Share 35 Fascinating Things They Didn’t Learn In School (New Pics)
On days when everything seems to be going wrong or when the hours just seem to drag on, it can be easy to feel discouraged or unfulfilled. But the beauty of life is that there is always an opportunity to learn and grow, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. And what better way to do that than through our beloved subreddit 'Today I Learned' (TIL)?
From all walks of life, its 30 million members come together to share all the fascinating things they have recently discovered. Some of these tidbits may be purely for entertainment, raising an eyebrow in surprise or having a chuckle at their absurdity, and others may have the potential to change the way we think or approach life's problems, offering valuable insight and perspective.
So why not take a moment to scroll through the posts, upvote your favorites, and expand your mind? And if you're looking for even more learning opportunities, be sure to check out our previous TIL posts here, here, and here as well. You never know what you might discover that could make your day a little brighter and more complete.
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#1
TIL Steven Spielberg asked all the extras doing a Nazi salute in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' to also cross their fingers behind their backs.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
I LOVE this. NAZIs suck, but they were a thing we should never forget.
RELATED:
#2
TIL Ozzy Osbourne gave up taking acid during the recording of Black Sabbath's Volume 4. He said “I took 10 tabs of acid then went for a walk in a field. I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour. In the end the horse turned round and told me to fuck off. That was it for me.”
#3
TIL that despite having a 95% Muslim population, Christmas is an extremely popular holiday in the west African nation of Senegal, which has a tradition of Muslims and Christians adopting each other's holidays.
Serial pacifist 1 year ago
Same in Bosnia. Many Muslims celebrate with their Christian friends and famliy members. Even for Muslims, it is a day of celebration of birth of one of the holiest characters, prophet Jesus (as he is perceived in Muslim tradition).
#4
TIL that the Bald Eagle population has recovered! They are now fairly common birds to be seen in residential areas.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
Also they will swoop in and eat your kitty cat if you aren't careful.
#5
TIL that during the middle ages it was believed that ringing church bells during thunderstorms would keep lightning away. The practice was abandoned after more than 100 bell ringers were killed by lightning.
#6
TIL that African elephants can distinguish between human languages and can avoid those considered a threat.
#7
TIL In 2019, Konami added a new official rule to Yu Gi Oh tournaments, the Hygiene clause where you would be disqualified if you smell bad or wear dirty clothing as it produces an "unpleasant" playing environment. The response was generally positive.
#8
TIL David Bowie used to travel around in New York carrying a Greek newspaper in the belief that people would assume he was just a Greek man who looked like David Bowie and leave him alone.
#9
TIL Betty White was nominated in the 1st Emmy category for female performers in 1950, 1 of the first women to have full creative control of her own TV show, while she was still living at home with her parents, the1st woman to host her own talk show and 1st woman to win an Emmy for game show hosting.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
you forgot to mention the most important thing she did: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/01/01/betty-white-black-dancer-arthur-duncan/9067252002/
#10
TIL that in 1931, a scientist tried to teach a baby chimpanzee human behavior by raising it alongside his human son. The chimpanzee never acquired language skills, and the experiment was called off when the human baby began imitating the chimpanzee's vocalizations.
Saggi 1 year ago
Maybe not intentional, but this study could have evolved into something about how humans adapt to their environment in a different way compared to other animals. That would be a really cool way to test out the theory of the “people pleasing mechanisms” but as a survival skill. I would be interested to see what it could find, especially when you put our young kids in social situations with other animals. It could show that while animals typically evolve over a longer time, humans can use their defence mechanisms as a sort of manipulative way to survive.
#11
TIL When Jane married Stephen Hawking, she believed it would be a two year commitment, as doctors said he only had two years to live. Jane became his full time caretaker and they were together 25 years.
OhnoI’vebeencensored 1 year ago
She had an emotional affair and he eventually fell in love with another of his nurses. Given the challenges in their marriage I suppose they did very well! Jane was a Christian and Hawking agnostic at first, becoming increasingly atheistic, which was also a source of tension. That said, I do not think one can conclude atheism from Hawking's physics discoveries, however much he seemed to think that was the case.
#12
TIL that when the set of James Cameron’s Titanic was submerged during filming, the Grand Staircase dislodged and floated; supporting the uncomfirmed theory that the missing original staircase dislodged and floated away during the real sinking.
#13
TIL after U.S. President Garfield was shot, his doctors were so negligent and gave him such a bad infection that his assassin openly confessed at trial to the shooting, but argued that Garfield’s doctors had actually done the killing.
PattyK 1 year ago
The bullet was lodged in Garfield’s body and the doctor was determined to remove it. Over a period of several days, the doctor repeatedly stuck his unwashed finger into the wound and probed for the bullet. So the assassin was probably right; the bullet didn’t kill Garfield. The infection that resulted from the repeated probing did.
#14
TIL Although it is lauded as an excellent psychological tool by Government Agencies, Businesses, and even some schools, the Myers-Briggs Personality Test has been deemed useless by modern psychological experts.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
it is totally useless. <- Me, psych degree specialising in pathologies.
#15
TIL about xocolatl and tlilxóchitl, now known as chocolate and vanilla. The Mexica (Aztecs of Mexico) were the first to use both vanilla and cocoa together to help with the flavor of their foods and drinks, often mixing them together.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
We also owe the native american contininent's farmers: tobacco, tomatos, potatos, corn, and chili.
#16
TIL John Steinbeck IV wrote an article in January 1968 about marijuana usage among the troops. This set off a media firestorm, & the Army began clamping down on marijuana usage, arresting ~1000 G.I.s a week for possession. Many G.I.s switched to heroin, which was odorless and thus harder to detect.
Serial pacifist 1 year ago
You mean the government made an irrational, short-sighted decision that lead to real tragedy and misfortune? How unexpected, especially in Vietnam.
#17
TIL Beethoven in his 1822 composition Piano Sonata No. 32 wrote a powerful, heavily syncopated passage that has been described as boogie-woogie, jazz, and ragtime, a style which would not exist for another 70 years.
#18
TIL that Earth is the only known place in our solar system where fire occurs and no known exoplanets have oxygen enough to allow fire.
#19
TIL Rod Serling originally wrote an episode about Emmett Till but it was rejected and so he turned to science fiction, instead, to talk about social issues, creating The Twilight Zone.
Almostfoxlike 1 year ago
Lemme rephrase that last part for you: after being rejected for another show idea on social issues, he created the twilight zone, and hid his commentary on the same social issues within science fiction.
#20
TIL there is a shrine in Wales where Dobby the house elf was buried. consisting of 1000's of painted rocks and socks.
#21
TIL The first man to report a rogue wave was Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1826, d'Urville was then publicly ridiculed because such a wave was believed impossible. A rogue wave was not measured until 1995 and the lack of earlier reporting is likely due to few wooden ships surving the encounter.
Serial pacifist 1 year ago
No comments on this? Ok, I will post one. I don’t want the rogue wave to feel lonely and isolated.
#22
TIL that in addition to names like “Hope”, “Felicity”, and “Prudence”, Puritans also named their children things like “Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world- to-save”, “Damned”, and “Fly-fornication”.
#23
TIL sloths can hold their breath for 40 minutes, which is longer than many marine mammals including dolphins.
#24
TIL about Eric Simons, a then 19-year-old entrepreneur who secretly lived at AOL headquarters in California for 2 months in 2011. He ate the food, used the gym, and slept in conference rooms, all while working on his startup "ClassConnect". Employees just assumed he worked there during this time.
#25
TIL when Frank Zappa was a kid, he always played with mercury that his father brought home from work, often covering his entire bedroom floor with the element. Childhood exposure to mercury is known to increase the risk of prostate cancer as an adult. Frank Zappa died from prostate cancer at age 52.
#26
TIL An entire Roman legion went missing in the 2nd Century AD, and we're still baffled as to what happened.
Jan Rosier 1 year ago
Saw a documentary about this once. Apparently they walked into a cave, got trapped in time and were then discovered by some doctor in a blue telephone box.
#27
TIL two gifted college students considered themselves so superior they planned “the perfect crime” to prove their intellectual abilities. After [taking out] a child, despite their purported genius, they left plenty of evidence and were swiftly caught and brought to judgment.
CalicoKitty 1 year ago
Egotistical people generally tend to be rather disappointing, when it comes to it. Both in ability and quality of character.
#28
TIL that when Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, journalist Giovanna Chirri was the first to break the news as she was the only one to understand Latin. She recalls: "He said it in Latin and I was panicking. I was short of breath, my legs were trembling, it was a reaction to shock."
#29
TIL Public nativity scenes are often the victim of baby Jesus theft. Some churches have had to chain their baby Jesus down to deter theft while others have added GPS tracking to their baby Jesus.
#30
TIL in the middle of Boston, Massachusetts, there is a 120-year-old abandoned concert hall known as Steinert Hall that is 40 feet underground, buried beneath a piano store.
#31
TIL while writing "A Christmas Carol," Charles Dickens was "taking night-time walks of 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) around London." to build out the story in his head.
#32
TIL that astronauts eat steak and eggs before a flight because it's filling and low on dietary fiber so they won't have to poop during the mission.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
but their farts must be something special in that closed-off space.
#33
TIL - That during Apartheid in South Africa you were forbidden to have relations with someone of another race. The Boers developed the "Pencil Test"; if a pencil would stay in your hair when pushed in you were declared as "black" and could only have relations with other "blacks".
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
can confirm, south african here. It was an informal test and only done when someone's racial category was in doubt.
#34
TIL Cleopatra was born of incest. "More than a dozen of Cleopatra’s ancestors tied the knot with cousins or siblings, and it’s likely that her own parents were brother and sister. In keeping with this custom, Cleopatra eventually married both of her adolescent brothers.
CalicoKitty 1 year ago
The majority of Egyptian lineages were just long incest lines. The Ptolemies, being distinctly not Egyptian, probably could have dipped on the tradition, and yet...
#35
TIL that for a period of 20 years, Argentina ranked as one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, having the highest GDP per capita in 1895 and being among the 10 richest until 1920. Today, the country is in crippling debt, and is considered one of the biggest economic downturns in modern history.
What do you think ?
Kevin J. Henning 1 year ago
Good point. Let's take it one step further and include citations for almost everything on this website.
Load More Replies...
Neuropotathy 1 year ago
I love til posts. Also I have life besides scrolling entertainment resources, so no reposts problem for me XD
Kevin J. Henning 1 year ago
Good point. Let's take it one step further and include citations for almost everything on this website.
Load More Replies... Neuropotathy 1 year ago
I love til posts. Also I have life besides scrolling entertainment resources, so no reposts problem for me XD
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