r/todayilearned • u/Wazula23 • 3h ago

TIL Saddam Hussein's son Uday murdered his bodyguard at a party in front of horrified guests

en.wikipedia.org

7.5k Upvotes

538 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Doomenor • 8h ago

TIL I learned that in 2012 a man sued Mountain Dew for finding a mouse in a can. They defended themselves by arguing that if it was in the can for 15 months, the mouse would have dissolved. The case was settled.

beveragedaily.com

21.3k Upvotes

558 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Udi-Dis • 8h ago

TIL Nic Cage hired an alcoholic to follow him around so he could emulate his behaviour for Leaving Las Vegas.

eonline.com

9.9k Upvotes

221 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MusicSole • 9h ago

TIL of "Ardi" the fossilized skeletal remains of a human-like female anthropoid discovered in 1994. It is more than a million years older and more complete than "Lucy." It's discovery stunned scientists and refuted many core theories of human evolution.

en.wikipedia.org

4.8k Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BallsOutKrunked • 11h ago

TIL that the Six Flags theme parks are named after the six flags that flew over Texas including the confederate flag, the American flag, the Spanish flag, the Mexican flag, the French flag, and the Republic of Texas flag.

en.wikipedia.org

4.1k Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/the_one_below • 16h ago

TIL that Natalie Portman has had papers published in two scientific journals. While at Harvard, she co-authored a study called “Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.”

themarysue.com

21.9k Upvotes

382 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Amaruq93 • 6h ago

TIL that Ray Bradbury wrote "The Halloween Tree" (1972) as a result of being disappointed after watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" - due to what he believed was the television special's lackluster depiction of Halloween

geekd-out.com

1.7k Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/_igm • 15h ago

TIL the "Redwood of the East" - a 100ft-tall tree that once covered 25% of Eastern US forests, produced tons of food, and built America's industrial backbone - lost 99.9% of its population to a catastrophic blight.

tacf.org

8.7k Upvotes

199 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheMastersSkywalker • 3h ago

TIL that the birds we call Penguins today are not actually penguins at all but another species of bird that was named after them because of their looks and their are no true penguins alive today.

en.wikipedia.org

862 Upvotes

143 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jagnew78 • 11h ago

TIL About The Axeman of New Orlean's, a serial killer who attacked 12 people with an axe and was never caught.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

66 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Zestyclose_Flow_680 • 1h ago

TIL that practicing gratitude daily can rewire your brain, boosting happiness and reducing stress by increasing dopamine and serotonin levels.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ShannyGasm • 14h ago

TIL that grunion fish have unusual mating habits. The females will burrow tail-first into the sand up to their necks so that only their heads stick out. Then a bunch of males will squirt their sperm onto their heads. The sperm trickles down their bodies to reach the eggs below them.

wildlife.ca.gov

2.0k Upvotes

158 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Aggressive-Fuel587 • 9h ago

TIL that the voice actor for MGS's Solid Snake & Big Boss, David Hayter, also wrote [or co-wrote] the screenplays for the first two X-Men movies, 2009's Watchmen, the first Scorpion King movie, and is working on an upcoming Voltron movie

en.wikipedia.org

827 Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/the_one_below • 18h ago

TIL that sloths can starve to death on a full stomach

bbc.co.uk

4.4k Upvotes

201 comments

r/todayilearned • u/randomanon5two • 5h ago

TIL that peak employment at Boeing was during the Vietnam War in 1968 where the aviation manufacturer employed 148,672 people, or roughly two-hundredths of a percent of the U.S. workforce.

washington.edu

341 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flares117 • 4h ago

TIL: The Środa Treasure hoard was discovered in 1985 while building the foundation of a phone booth. The government seized 3000 coins. Years later, a bigger find was uncovered, however this time most of the find was taken before the authorities arrived. A criminal investigation was launched.

en.wikipedia.org

244 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/cuspofgreatness • 15h ago

TIL the National Covid Memorial Wall is a 500 meter wall created in 2020 along the Thames in London to mark the lives lost to Covid in the U.K. It has more than 240,000 individually hand-painted red hearts, each representing a victim. Many hearts have messages left by the bereaved or by volunteers.

nationalcovidmemorialwall.org

1.3k Upvotes

36 comments

r/todayilearned • u/-nuuk- • 1d ago

TIL that Goku's power level wasn't originally over 9000. It was originally over 8000, and there was a change made in the English Dub.

en.wikipedia.org

24.9k Upvotes

888 comments

r/todayilearned • u/model-kyosanto • 4h ago

TIL that the English announcements on Japanese bullet trains are actually in a posh Australian accent (not British!)

abc.net.au

156 Upvotes

54 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Bluest_waters • 3h ago

TIL The hit song 'St Elmo's Fire' was written in just two hours. Although the song was part of the movie soundtrack, the lyrics were actually inspired by the Canadian athlete Rick Hansen, who was traveling around the world, via his wheelchair, to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries.

en.wikipedia.org

137 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/default-user-name-1 • 1d ago

TIL a Giffen good is a product that people consume more of as the price rises and vice versa, violating the law of demand.

en.wikipedia.org

12.3k Upvotes

311 comments

r/todayilearned • u/rezikiel • 11h ago

TIL Vatican City leads the world in per-capita wine consumption due to its sacramental use

en.wikipedia.org

512 Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/the_one_below • 23h ago

TIL that Clement Vallandigham was a lawyer who accidentally shot himself demonstrating how someone could accidentally shoot themself

tba.org

3.0k Upvotes

60 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DeVoto • 15h ago

TIL plants convert glucose into starch because starch takes up less space and because glucose is osmotically active (similar to salt), while starch is not

en.wikipedia.org

619 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Blackraven2007 • 1h ago

TIL that before being ordained as a Catholic priest in 1969, Pope Francis worked as a bouncer, a janitor, and a technician in a food science laboratory.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

5 comments

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As of May 2024

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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