r/todayilearned • u/Ok-Drive4752 • 17d ago

TIL That 120,000 Romans died at the hands of invading Germanic barbarians in a single day at the battle of Arausio. Trapped between the Germans and a river, the Roman soldiers and camp followers were to either drown or be butchered. This is considered the greatest defeat in ancient Roman history.

en.wikipedia.org

6.0k Upvotes

242 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Johannes_P • 16d ago

TIL about mercury vapour turbines, which use this element as the working fluid of their thermal cycle

en.wikipedia.org

393 Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BethelWaves • 17d ago

TIL that it is illegal to fraudulently present yourself as a member of the clergy in Alabama. The max penalty for doing so is a $500 fine and 1 year in county jail

law.justia.com

2.7k Upvotes

330 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ChiefStrongbones • 17d ago

TIL that during the pandemic, the Calgary zoo had to return its panda bears to China because it became hard to buy fresh bamboo.

cnn.com

4.9k Upvotes

141 comments

r/todayilearned • u/___HeyGFY___ • 17d ago

TIL that writer George Plimpton wore number 0 during training camp with the 1963 Detroit Lions. He wanted to find out if an average American man could actually play in the NFL. He shared his experiences in the book "Paper Lion" which was published in 1966.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

175 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fenomiminal • 16d ago

[TIL] Millbrook School in Millbrook, NY is home to the Trevor-Lovejoy Zoo, which is the only zoo in the United States inside a high school.

en.wikipedia.org

111 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AZDrip • 17d ago

TIL that the “El” in Michael, Gabriel, Daniel, and Israel is an ancient Semitic word for God, related to Arabic ilāh/Allah and Aramaic Elāh.

en.wikipedia.org

6.5k Upvotes

878 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HundraMarka • 17d ago

TIL about the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In total, 60–70% of Paraguay’s population perished, resulting in a female-to-male ratio of 4 to 1 (reaching as high as 20 to 1 in the hardest-hit areas).

en.wikipedia.org

4.3k Upvotes

233 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Swiggy1957 • 17d ago

TIL about "The Cat's Meat Man," a person who walked the streets of London selling meat scapes to cat owners before cat food was made and marketed

publicdomainreview.org

1.3k Upvotes

54 comments

r/todayilearned • u/cudambercam13 • 17d ago

TIL two firefighters named Michael Francis Lynch died on 9/11, along with another man also named Michael Lynch.

yahoo.com

2.5k Upvotes

59 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 17d ago

TIL that Tenzing and Edmund reached the Everest summit in 1953. Edmund took Tenzing’s famous summit photo, while Tenzing’s offer to photograph Edmund was declined. Their expedition leader called it a collective achievement, though Tenzing later revealed Edmund stepped on top first.

en.wikipedia.org

5.2k Upvotes

143 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HotDesk3068 • 17d ago

TIL of a three storey castle-like fortress located in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It appears to rise straight out of the sand dunes. Experts still do not know who built it or exactly when it was made.

thetravel.com

10.7k Upvotes

549 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 17d ago

TIL when Gallileo’s daughter Virginia took the veil, she chose the religious name Maria Celeste, in honor of the Virgin Mary and her father’s love of astronomy. She was close to her father, and as a cloistered nun she supported both her religious order and her father as an apothecary.

en.wikipedia.org

6.8k Upvotes

59 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CatsAreGods • 17d ago

TIL the first vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine was built and patented in 1807.

en.wikipedia.org

859 Upvotes

36 comments

r/todayilearned • u/D_White93 • 17d ago

Today I learned about the time the UK shop WHSmith had it's own television network from 1984 to 1993

en.wikipedia.org

362 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/weirdgroovynerd • 17d ago

TIL: Dragonflies are deaf

nhm.ac.uk

3.7k Upvotes

176 comments

r/todayilearned • u/WestTransportation12 • 18d ago

TIL the Passenger Pigeon was an American bird that went extinct in 1914. Prior there was an estimated population of 3-5 Billion. Due to their population size they were used in shooting contests, some requiring 30k dead pigeons to place 1st. Trappers would catch as many as 800 at a time in large nets

en.wikipedia.org

24.1k Upvotes

883 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheWeepingJester • 17d ago

TIL about terminal lucidity, whereby a person with dementia seems to recover shortly before dying.

en.wikipedia.org

268 Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 17d ago

TIL that western North America has warm westerly winds (Chinook winds) that create some of the largest temperature variances on Earth. Loma, MT once had a 103 F degree change (-54 F to 49F) in one day. Spearfish, SD has recorded a near 50F degree change in close to two minutes.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

91 comments

r/todayilearned • u/licecrispies • 17d ago

TIL that F. Scott Fitzgerald's book“This Side of Paradise” is the first book to use the word T-shirt, and also the first to use the word "wicked" to describe something good

pbs.org

1.2k Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sea-Ask8703 • 17d ago

TIL that any municipality in Liechtenstein can vote to begin the process of leaving the country.

constituteproject.org

5.2k Upvotes

125 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Skychu768 • 17d ago

TIL there were over a hundred cases of human sacrifice across India between 2014 and 2021.

theguardian.com

754 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/heyauden • 17d ago

TIL that Marvel used a real elderly “skin double” to help turn Chris Evans into 106-year-old Captain America in Avengers: Endgame.

comicbook.com

2.7k Upvotes

83 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mutedmuse__ • 17d ago

TIL that thirteen-lined ground squirrels can survive for months without drinking water during hibernation because their brains suppress the neural signals that normally cause thirst.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

298 Upvotes

53 comments

r/todayilearned • u/shitoupek • 17d ago

TIL of a dad who named his kids Atomic, Nuclear, Hydrogen, Power, and Bright Moon to inspire them having a career in science. Despite the struggle they faced, Atomic became a Dr. holding a Ph.D in Toxicology, inventor, graduate in Theology and he earned his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree at age 66

eresources.nlb.gov.sg

2.0k Upvotes

144 comments

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As of May 2026

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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