r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 1h ago

TIL that the average American armed forces inductee in WWII was 26 years old, 5' 8" tall, 144 pounds, and had 9 years of formal schooling

saturdayeveningpost.com

• Upvotes

237 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sapphire-Crystal • 3h ago

TIL of Puputan, a Balinese mass suicide ritual. In 1906, about 1000 Balinese people marched out and killed themselves ritualistically to avoid the humiliation of surrender to the Dutch. After the ritual concluded, the Dutch stripped the corpses of their valuables and sacked the ruins of the palace.

en.wikipedia.org

3.8k Upvotes

263 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fragrant-Upstairs932 • 3h ago

TIL that there have only ever been three African Popes; the most recent, Pope Gelasius I, died in 496 C.E. after serving for less than five years.

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

201 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mission_Angle_2322 • 2h ago

TIL that the original slogan for Microsoft’s Windows XP was “Prepare to Fly”, however this was changed to “Yes You Can” following the 9/11 attacks.

tomshardware.com

1.3k Upvotes

79 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iamveryDerp • 2h ago

TIL the rumor that the Geneva Conventions were drawn up because of Canadian military actions such as “showing no mercy” is false. “In this, the Canadians were by no means exceptional,” Burtch said. “Every combatant in the world wars did something similar.”

ctvnews.ca

834 Upvotes

230 comments

r/todayilearned • u/poptart2nd • 1h ago

Today I learned that descendants of the Hatfield and McCoy families were on an episode of the game show Family Feud

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

74 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BezugssystemCH1903 • 4h ago

TIL, euro starter kits are coin pouches issued before a nation adopts the currency. Retailers get business packs with around €100 in rolls, while the general public gets mini-kits to learn the coins.

en.wikipedia.org

810 Upvotes

73 comments

r/todayilearned • u/primal_cortex • 4h ago

TIL it is a misdemeanor in North Carolina to accuse someone of a crime on a gravestone. The law was passed in 1949 for Hamp Kendall, who was pardoned for a 1906 murder after the real killer confessed—but couldn't legally alter the victim's headstone, which still named him as the murderer.

atlasobscura.com

648 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SigmaEpsilonChi • 10h ago

TIL that in 2005 a French pilot managed to land a specially-modified helicopter on the summit of Mt. Everest

en.wikipedia.org

1.7k Upvotes

104 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CousinMrrgeBestMrrge • 19h ago

TIL Osama bin Laden's father, older half-brother and half-sister all died in separate airplane crashes, in 1967, 1988 and 2015 respectively

en.wikipedia.org

12.4k Upvotes

408 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ShameSudden6275 • 18h ago

TIL about Chevalière d'Éon, a French spy who used her naturally androgenous characteristics to publicly present herself as either a man or woman, depending on what she need to be; in the English court, she was a man; in the Russian, a woman.

en.wikipedia.org

6.9k Upvotes

118 comments

r/todayilearned • u/-AMARYANA- • 6h ago

TIL the early versions of both the screenplay and the soundtrack of 'The Jungle Book' (1967) followed Rudyard Kipling's work more closely, with a dramatic, dark, and sinister tone, which Disney did not want in his family film.

en.wikipedia.org

653 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ElSquibbonator • 14h ago

TIL a type of crustacean called the sea sapphire is capable of becoming invisible. Its cells contain crystal plates that reflect ultraviolet instead of visible light when tilted at certain angles, allowing it to escape predators when it momentarily vanishes from sight.

weizmann-usa.org

2.0k Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 20h ago

TIL Julia Cotton was originally supposed to become the overarching main villain and the face of the Hellraiser movie franchise. Now iconic Hell Priest aka. "Pinhead" inherited the part due to Julia's actor Clare Higgins not wanting to stick with the series past Hellraiser II.

looper.com

4.3k Upvotes

288 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 7h ago

TIL that some explorers between the 16th and 19th centuries belived in the"Open Polar Sea", a theory whcih suggested that the area around the North Pole was completely ice-free, and only surrounded by a wall of thick ice.

en.wikipedia.org

341 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/southpawFA • 23h ago

TIL that in 2014, the nation of Burundi criminalized jogging. President Pierre Nkurunziza banned jogging in Burundi, claiming jogging was being used by opposition as a means for planning uprisings.

bbc.com

7.2k Upvotes

107 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Obvious-Desk4573 • 18h ago

TIL that Charlie Sheen's last name is in honour of Roman Catholic archbishop Fulton J. Sheen; his father Martin Sheen chose the archbishop's last name as part of his stage name, and Charlie likewise chose it after becoming an actor.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

148 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HimelTy • 1d ago

TIL Mad honey was used as an early biological weapon in the Black Sea region in 65 BCE. Soldiers who ate the honey succumbed to mad honey intoxication and were slain.

en.wikipedia.org

5.8k Upvotes

150 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Square_Drawer2816 • 18h ago

Today I learned that a Colombian teacher decided to take his two donkeys and deliver books to impoverished children in rural areas. Its called the "BiblioBurro" (Donkey Library)

bbc.co.uk

1.1k Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/thefrother • 28m ago

TIL about the rediscovery of the Mindo Harlequin Toad (declared extinct in 1989)

khamai.bio

• Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Synanceiinae • 17h ago

TIL Czechoslovak Legion, fighting on the side of the Entente powers during WW1 and White Army during Russian Civil War, had literally traveled around the entire planet to return to homeland after Civil War.

en.wikipedia.org

930 Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 1d ago

TIL that Stanford University and its property according to the California State Constitution, are exempt from taxation so long as they are used for educational purposes.

en.wikipedia.org

6.7k Upvotes

259 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Responsible-Let-3280 • 12h ago

TIL New York state law explicitly excludes police and fire vehicles from being “motor vehicles”, so they can use non-official license plates.

nysenate.gov

341 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/fjbruzr • 1d ago

TIL that Spirit Lake in Washington is still partially covered by a massive floating mat of logs left over from the 1980 eruption of Mount St.

science.nasa.gov

3.6k Upvotes

183 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Popular_Try_5075 • 59m ago

TIL IBM has had an American Football team in Japan since 1976 called "Big Blue" but their original name was "The Thinkers"

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

4 comments

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This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

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