Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
Today, you will learn there's a subreddit called "Today I Learned" (TIL).
Even if you already know about this online community from my earlier articles (here, here, and here), I think you're gonna enjoy this one!
TIL is a place with a simple premise: everyone shares interesting facts they discover on the Internet. And sure, it's no Britannica, but the most important rule on the subreddit is that the facts must be legit and the online community has 26.1 million members self-governing its content, so you know what you're reading is true.
Plus, they usually attach corresponding photos to make the content more vivid and easier to digest as well. Here are some of the posts that recently went viral on the subreddit. Enjoy!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
TIL the chemical reaction in glow sticks was discovered by Dr. Edwin Chandross in 1962, but he had no idea the "chemiluminescent" objects were popular at music shows until a Vice interview in 2013. "Is that so?" he said. "Maybe my granddaughter will think I'm cool now."
#2
TIL after a chance encounter, Charles-Michel de l'Épée was taught to sign by the deaf. Believing the deaf should be able to receive the sacraments, he founded a school in 1760 to teach sign language. His public advocacy enabled deaf people to legally defend themselves in court for the first time
Kari Panda 3 years ago (edited)
Note though that l'Épée’s sign language system wasn’t popular among his students and they didn‘t use it much out of school. (Reason being that is was very cumbersome, requiring up to five signs for a single word.)
#3
TIL a 2018 study by Yale psychologists found introverts who are prone to melancholy seem to be more astute at understanding how people behave in groups than their sociable peers. Introverts are more prone to assessing truths about humans’ “social nature” without formal training or tools
hyperunknown 3 years ago
I'm developing a new fragrance for introverts. I'm going to call it leave me the fuh cologne!
#4
TIL that the jumping spider, Nefertiti, was launched to the ISS to observe if it could catch prey in microgravity. It succeeded in catching prey by learning to walk slowly, rather than leaping, as this species usually does. It survived reentry and readjusted to full gravity before its natural death
#5
TIL Tag brothers are a group of 10 men who had been playing the game of tag since 1990, chasing each other around the country, traveling by plane, car etc. As of 2018, the game is still ongoing
#6
TIL A director made a ten hour movie that's just about paint on a wall drying, lasting for ten hours and seven minutes. The film was created by Charlie Lyne in order to troll the British Board of Film Classification (B.B.F.C.) who were forced to sit through the whole thing
#7
TIL of eagle hunters in Mongolia. Known as the Burkitshi, this nomadic tribe hunts with eagles (only female eagles as they are larger and believed to be fiercer). While eagles can live for decades, theirs are captured at the age of four and released after 10 years to live out their life in the wild.
Call Me Mars 3 years ago
In Dubai/Qatar, it is the same thing but with vultures. I have been on planes with people who have vultures on their arms. The birds are very well behaved.
#8
TIL that Charles D. B. King holds the record for the most fraudulent election in history. In 1927 he was elected President of Liberia with 234,000 votes in a country that only had 15,000 registered voters at the time
#9
TIL the big orange fuel tank attached to the space shuttles was originally white, but they stopped painting it to save 600lbs
#10
TIL about the 71 teenage students, who were stationed to protect a South Korean HQ, despite having no experience in war or even firing a gun. The SK army didn’t think the NK army would attack that HQ, but they did. Those students, still in their school uniforms, held back the NK army for 11 hours
#11
TIL I learned the first American soldier to land on the beach durning the invasion of Normandy was shot twice and not only survived, but lived to be 90 years old
Serial pacifist 3 years ago (edited)
Hal Baumgarten tops them all. Saving himself from drowning, he was one of the only two men from his Company B who survived the landing after others who didn’t drown were mowed down by German machineguns. When general Bradley saw the carnage, he ordered that no more troops land on that part of Omaha beach. So, Baumgarten was left on his own. Breaking his way through, he was wounded two times on June 6. First, an 88-millimeter shell went in front of him. It blew off his left cheek and made a hole in the roof of his mouth, teeth and gum laying on his tongue. He continued fighting, getting wounded once more on June 6. The next day, a mortar shell gave him three more head wounds, his helmet saving him from death. After they broke through German lines at the beach, his unit walked straight into another German ambush. He was shot in the face by an MG-42...
#12
TIL after an earthquake shattered the Colossi of Memnon in Egypt, the damaged statue began to "sing" during sunrise which modern scientists attribute to early morning heat causing dew trapped within the statue’s crack to evaporate creating vibrations that echoed through the desert air.
SealOfDisapproval 3 years ago
There's some noise in the mornings from dew trapped in my crack too.
#13
TIL research found that 94% of British people said they had conversed about the weather in the past six hours, and 38% said they had in the past 60 minutes. This means at any moment in the UK, a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already done so or are about to do so
#14
TIL astronauts need to sleep near air vents or risk carbon dioxide from their own lungs forming a bubble around their head due to weightlessness
#15
TIL Los Angeles is the first major city in the world to synchronize all its traffic lights. Nearly 4,400 lights across 469 miles receive real-time updates about traffic flow to make second-by-second adjustments. The system limits congestion by up to 16% while also dramatically reducing idling time
Charlotte Ayers 3 years ago
Having driven extensively in LA the last several years, it would be nice if this were actually true. The rush hour traffic through west LA is one big parking lot.
#16
TIL Kodak uncovered the first atomic bomb test when customers began complaining about black spots on their photos
#17
TIL Lisa Leslie as a high school basketball player scored 101 points in 16 minutes of play. She shot 37 of 56 from the floor and 27 of 35 from the line. However, she did not break the record for women's points in a high school game because the other team's coach refused to play the second half
I don't like my name 3 years ago
The other teams coach wasn't much of a coach... he should have kept going and showed his players what dignity and fairness looks like! Sucks Lisa Leslie got robbed of a chance to break a record but couldn't based on a man's "embarrassment"?!? There's always a loser I guess...
#18
TIL about fossil words, words that have largely fallen out of common use but still survive in idioms. Examples include "fro" (as in to and fro) and "lo" as in (lo and behold)
Anagram margana 3 years ago
I wish we used the word ‘frightfully’ … as in “Oh, I’m frightfully sorry you were caught in that downpour!” And then Miss Marple shows up.
#19
TIL The Lion King Game (SEGA/SNES) was made extremely difficult on purpose. Disney told the developers to make the game so difficult that people wouldn't be able to beat it during a rental period at Blockbuster. A few developers would later apologize to fans for how hard the game is
More Thinking Needed 3 years ago
Disney's "love" for kids is nothing compared to their "love" for the almighty dollar.
#20
TIL that from 2003 to 2005, a 13-year-old girl wrote a 365k word Harry Potter fanfiction while in the hospital receiving cancer treatment. She passed away just six days after completing it, and her father used her notes to write the second book in the series
#21
TIL Steve Harvey sent a television for Christmas every year to the Teacher Who Said He'd Never Be on Television
#22
TIL that Christopher Lee sent Peter Jackson a photograph of him in a wizard's costume, wanting to play Gandalf, but Jackson decided he would be a perfect Saruman, instead.
#23
TIL that Brisbane was originally founded as a penal colony for convicts who committed new offenses after they had arrived in Australia
Dillon Hughes 3 years ago
Wow another truth down voted! Yes Jo the entire country was a prison.
#24
TIL a California lawyer filed for a restraining order to stop his neighbor's kids from playing basketball claiming their game dropped the value of his house by $100k. He was ultimately denied with the court saying that reasonable people can expect "some inconveniences and annoyances" from neighbors
#25
TIL the McDonald's corporation quietly phased out Ronald McDonald, the companies clown mascot, due to the 2016 clown scare video fad
#26
TIL the modern air conditioner was invented by Willis Carrier not to cool people, but to reduce damaging humidity in a print shop
#27
TIL that the town of Why, Arizona was originally known as just "Y" due to the Y-shaped intersection of two roads. It changed its name to "Why" due to an Arizona state law requiring town names to be at least 3 letters long
#28
TIL Centuries after Alexander the great's death, his tomb was a tourist attraction. Many of the roman emperors who visited the tomb left with souvenirs, effectively looting the monument. According to one account, Augustus Caesar tried to touch the 300 year old mummy, accidentaly breaking its nose
#29
TIL building codes in South Florida require exterior doors to swing outwards because it offers better protection against hurricanes. It was enacted after Hurricane Andrew
#30
TIL that the entry fee for Hammond's Jurassic Park (from the first movie) was supposed to be 550 $
What do you think ?
Cathy Lane 2 years ago
I'm confused about the Harry Potter one. The second Harry Potter book came out in 1998
Cathy Lane 2 years ago
I'm confused about the Harry Potter one. The second Harry Potter book came out in 1998
Related on Bored Panda
