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With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, our minds are always buzzing. Every time we hop online, we’re bombarded with endless amounts of news, data, and entertainment, and it’s bound to make heads spin! While the digital world makes sure our brains never really stop, thankfully, there’s a beloved corner of the internet that helps us feel less overwhelmed by featuring the tastiest bitesize nuggets of information we all appreciate.
We’re talking about the ‘Today I Learned’ online community, the perfect outlet to pique our curiosity and boost our intelligence. With over 28.8 million members, the group celebrates knowledge by sharing some of the most intriguing and lesser-known things, facts, and truths that can be quickly consumed and understood.
Below, we wrapped up the freshest batch of surprising and valuable tidbits from this powerhouse to add some much-needed value to our feeds. So grab your notebooks and your thinking caps and get ready for an informative ride as you scroll down this list. Be sure to upvote your favorite facts, and then spread some words of wisdom in the comments! Psst! For more goodness from the TIL world, check out Bored Panda’s earlier pieces here, here, and right here.
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TIL Hummingbirds have an exceptional memory due to an enlarged hippocampus. This allows them to remember the exact location of specific hummingbird feeders along their migration path from North America to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
Winger52 , Charles J. Sharp Report
They create their own map
TIL that at the ancient Olympics, cheating athletes would be fined and the fines used to build bronze statues at the entrance of the Olympic stadium, each inscribed with the name of the cheater and how they cheated
DAJ1 , ace-classicist Report
We should start doing this again, let’s see how many statues we can make for doping
TIL of the ‘Fry and Turnbull effect’ on prostate cancer in the UK. In 2008 news presenter Bill Turnbull and broadcaster Stephen Fry both had a prostate cancer diagnosis and urged other men to come forward for help. It caused a 36% increase in patients receiving treatment the following year.
Status-Victory , independent Report
Unfortunately, Bill very recently passed away due to it. An excellent breakfast TV anchor, he was very much loved in the UK
TIL that Jimmy Carter, at 97, is the oldest living President, the longest-lived President, and also has the longest retirement ( 41 years ) of any President
MetaJoel , Department of Defense Report
He’s also one of the most amazing, nicest and most altruistic humans ever born.
TIL Freddie Mercury’s introductory scatting vocal on “Under Pressure” was improvised during an experiment suggested by David Bowie, as Brian May recalls it: “David said, ‘Okay, let’s each of us go in the vocal booth and sing how we think the melody should go and we’ll compile a vocal out of that.'”
Bubbly-Incident , happymag Report
I love that song sooooo much. What legends
TIL the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was founded by FDR’s New Deal in 1933. In its 9 year existence the CCC employed nearly 3 million men, planted over 3.5 billion trees, and established more than 700 state parks. It was the most rapid peacetime mobilization in US history.
foxymoxy18 , BLM Oregon & Washington Report
and a dog!! 🙂
TIL The Carmen Sandiego Show (1991-1995; 295 episodes) was created partially in response to the results of a National Geographic survey that indicated Americans had alarmingly little knowledge of geography, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean.
https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/x7nowm/til_the_carmen_sandiego_show_19911995_295/ , 8,36 tūkst. prenumeratorių Report
I’m very bemused by the amount of Americans that think Alaska is an island near Hawaii 😳
TIL award-winning writer William Goldman would make up bedtime stories for his daughters (4yo & 7yo). One of them wanted tales of princesses, the other wanted brides, so he combined them. These stories became his next book: “The Princess Bride”
Pfeffer_Prinz Report
I haven’t read the book, but it’s an outstanding movie
TIL in 400 BCE Persian engineers created an ice machine in the desert.
Brainfreezdnb , Pastaitaken Report
The link might look odd, but it works, I tried it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhch%C4%81l
TIL For weeks, Ganeshpur, a village in eastern Bihar, India, had to put up with frequent power outages that only seemed to occur a few hours after sunset. It was later revealed that an electrician was cutting the village’s power whenever he wanted to see his girlfriend in secrecy in the dark.
delano1998 Report
Sneak level 100
TIL that a drop of water spends an average of nine days in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth. If it should fall in the ocean it may take it over 3000 years before evaporating again.
John-Piece , Vlad Chețan Report
How the heck do you calculate all that!?
TIL that in 1956, the Comics Code Authority tried to prevent a story from being printed because it involved a black astronaut, even though this was never actually forbidden by the Code. Fortunately, the publisher managed to get the CCA to back down by threatening to take the matter to court.
ShabtaiBenOron , .lookie-lookie Report
The Comic Code as a whole was quite ludicrous – it was all based on the absurd notion that portraying villains in even a slightly positive/cool light might make children want to become criminals when they grow up. Today we have the same BS with the whole “video games make kids violent” hysteria, even though there’s no evidence to support this.
TIL that when a poisonous gas leak was found at 11:45pm immediately before the Bhopal disaster in 1984 that killed thousands, a decision was made to do something about it after the 12:15am tea break.
mankls3 , Bhopal Medical Appeal Report
“Come on, Dave, it’s not those 30 minutes will make that much difference and I’ll die without my tea.”
TIL The final episode of M*A*S*H was two and a half hours long and was viewed by an audience of 121 million.
haddock420 Report
“Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” It will make you cry.
TIL Medieval myths surrounding salamanders being resistant to fire were due to salamanders habit of hibernating in logs… putting another log in the fire = salamander scurrying from the fire … leading people to believe they were “born of fire”.
Geek_Nan , Petar Milošević Report
Gorgeous little creatures
TIL Tonic water was created as an early prophylactic treatment against Malaria (due to the added Quinine) by the British army. They added Gin to improve taste and now we have the G&T.
miniclaw Report
Love g&t, haven’t gotten malaria yet.
TIL somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are the Disappointment Islands. Named by John Byron in 1765, because he found the natives to be hostile towads him.
Mans_Fury , EwanSmith Report
To be fair I would also be kinda pissed if some guy showed up and said “Your island is mine now”
TIL The Golden Raspberry Awards has made retractions on two occasions. Bruce Willis had his Raspberry category retracted once it was discovered he was suffering from aphasia. Shelley Duvall’s nomination was retracted because of Kubrick’s mistreatment on The Shining.
jamescookenotthatone , giantfreakinrobot Report
“Aphasia – loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.” Why would they take it away for that? Edit – “The Golden Raspberry Awards is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements.” Oh, I see.
TIL: John Michell in 1783, published a paper speculating the existence of black holes, and was forgotten until the 1970s
Philosophile42 Report
I can confirm that. His idea was that if any star had a diameter more than 500 times that of the Sun, then Newtonian gravity would hide its light from us. It wasn’t until very much later, circa 1930, that it was realised that a star could have an average density much higher than that of the metal osmium. The Chandrasekhar limit that was published 1930-1935 suddenly made the possibility of real black holes real.
TIL that if two pieces of similar metals touch in a vacuum like outer space, and if both pieces are perfectly flat and polished, they will indeed fuse to effectively make one new piece. Atoms in the metals share electrons and bond permanently. This is called cold welding.
barzobius , Ms. weld Report
Ah, so I take it technically speaking it would be easier to make certain alloys in space?
TIL about rescue buoys used in the English channel in WWII. Designed to provide shelter for the pilots or crew of aircraft shot down or forced to make an emergency landing over water, they contained food, cigarettes, liquor, flares and even board games to pass the time.
Grothorious Report
“I see your three anchovies and raise you one shellfish.”
TIL the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca was so terrifying to Rome that they would use the phrase “Hannibal is at the gates” whenever disaster struck. When the romans finally defeated Hannibal, they built statues of him in the streets of Rome to advertise their defeat of such a worthy adversary.
firstpc13 , Mommsen Report
I actually knew this one 🙂
TIL Lal Bihari Mritak is an Indian farmer and activist who was officially declared dead between 1975 and 1994. He fought with Indian bureaucracy for 19 years to prove that he is alive.
happy_bluebird Report
This kind of sounds like a comedy. ‘Sir, you are dead!’ ‘No I’m not!’ ‘We know you’re dead, stop denying it!’
TIL: In 1990 a courier was robbed on a street in London, England. The robber made off with bearer bonds to the value of £292 million. Today, this is equivalent to £758 million – or $1.086 billion USD. This is still the highest amount ever stolen in a street robbery.
JonnySparks , Basher Eyre Report
No way that was a coincidence. He knew what he was mugging.
TIL Hans Christian Anderson was huge fanboy of Charles Dickens & annoyed the hell out of him by overstaying his welcome as a guest
Rossco1874 Report
Apparently HCA did this to many people—apparently, he was quite the annoying guest to just about everybody.
TIL that in 2006, FBI agents attempted to arrest prison guards at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee, after having learnt the guards were trading drugs for sex with female inmates. One of the guards opened fire with a personal handgun, killing one agent and wounding another.
RexSueciae , bop.gov Report
Woah
TIL that in his famous paper, Computing Machinery And Intelligence, Alan Turing recommended that the Turing Test be performed in a ‘telepathy-proof room’ so the human couldn’t use psychic powers to identify the computer
DeadForDecember Report
I have questions.
TIL When a horse and donkey mate they make a mule (or hinnie). Mules are stronger than horses and donkeys of the same size and are more resilient to disease.
MTG-NicolBolasfanboi Report
Downside is, they’re completely infertile.
TIL that the Allstate “Mayhem” actor Dean Winters, died for about 3 minutes, and was then revived. The infection that caused this also led to two toes and a thumb needing to be amputated.
Aerodim101 , denofgeek Report
Is that The Vulture😱
TIL that 95% of all thoroughbred racehorses today can trace their lineage back to a single horse, Darley Arabian, born over 300 years ago.
mckinneym Report
This isn’t quite correct. They trace their lineage back to THREE horses, The Darley Arabian, The Barley Turk, and the Godolphin Barb. The Godolphin Barb line is almost completely died out.
Note: this post originally had 102 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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Ieva is a writer at Bored Panda who graduated in Scandinavian studies from Vilnius University. After learning the Swedish language and getting completely lost in the world of Scandinavian mythology, she figured out that translating and writing is what she's passionate about. When not writing, Ieva enjoys making jewelry, going on hikes, reading and drinking coffee.
Austėja is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Photography. They have a diverse set of creative skills and a wide portfolio which ranges from photography to digital editing and traditional art. After graduating from Nottingham Trent University in 2018 they have worked as a freelance photographer until Bored Panda. When not editing, they enjoy biking, taking too many pictures of their dog and drawing.
Stuff like this is why I watch a lot of PBS and Nat Geo documentaries. Heck. They’ve discovered that orange slime mold has intelligence. So now we know trump’s genetic profile.
🤣😅😆😂
Well, not exactly. Orange slime mold has INTELLIGENCE, not sure that shows up in T’s genetic profile
Why are the haters as obsessed with Trump as his fans? Get over it. He isn’t even our president you moron. You are so obsessed with him jfc
It was a joke. You have no clue whether they do or don’t support him.
I just learned there was a for real murderer (possible serial killer) who was in the Exorcist!
More like this please. Learning new facts cheers me up.
Stuff like this is why I watch a lot of PBS and Nat Geo documentaries. Heck. They’ve discovered that orange slime mold has intelligence. So now we know trump’s genetic profile.
🤣😅😆😂
Well, not exactly. Orange slime mold has INTELLIGENCE, not sure that shows up in T’s genetic profile
Why are the haters as obsessed with Trump as his fans? Get over it. He isn’t even our president you moron. You are so obsessed with him jfc
It was a joke. You have no clue whether they do or don’t support him.
I just learned there was a for real murderer (possible serial killer) who was in the Exorcist!
More like this please. Learning new facts cheers me up.
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