50 Best Of All Time “Today I Learned” Facts To Keep The Brain Active And Healthy
Interview With Expert
We all probably carry around random pieces of information that we pull out as a party trick. For example, I like to tell people that it would take them 19 minutes to fall to the center of the earth.
If only there was a way to share these utterly amazing facts with millions of people. Fortunately for us, there is, and it’s called the “Today I Learned” subreddit.
It’s a place where all-knowing people gather to share their unlimited wisdom. From fake diseases to tombs for dogs, these facts really enrich the brain. So scroll down to find the collection of the best ones about everything and anything. Perhaps they’ll even inspire some fun trivia for your next dinner party with friends.
We also reached out to online quiz host Brie Zulkiewicz and Brianna Liestman brand engagement director behind Trivia Mafia who kindly agreed to tell us about the importance of learning facts and let us in on the secrets to hosting a great game!
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TIL a guide dog named Roselle led a group of people including her blind owner down 78 flights of stairs before the North Tower collapsed on 9/11. She only stopped to give kisses to a woman who was having a panic attack.
TIL:In January 1960, white jazz pianist Dave Brubeck canceled a twenty-five-date tour of colleges and universities across the American South after twenty-two schools had refused to allow his black bassist, Eugene Wright, to perform. He also canceled a tv show where they didn't want to show him.
TIL the former World Chess Champion G. Kasparov described Hungarian female chess player Polgár as a "circus puppet" and said that women chess players should stick to having children. Later in September 2002, in the Russia versus the Rest of the World Match, Polgár defeated Garry Kasparov.
Indeed, trivia games can be great fun. Not only that, but it keeps up good brain health, reduces stress, and improves memory retention.
Think of it as a workout for your mind. It needs exercise to stay in its best shape. Quickly delivering niche facts is an effective way to exercise the brain’s frontal cortex, which is responsible for memory function. In return, your brain becomes sharper, and the information is retained more easily.
This game is as much about gaining new knowledge as it is about recalling old tidbits of information. It’s rare to know everything and get a perfect score, so naturally, there will be questions that leave participants baffled. Learning the correct answers keeps brain functions working. Additionally, studies have found a positive connection between intellectually engaging activities such as trivia and higher cognition.
TIL of Syndrome K: a fake disease that Italian doctors made up to save Jews who had fled to their hospital seeking protection from the Nazis. Syndrome K "patients" were quarantined and the Nazis were told that it was a deadly, disfiguring, and highly contagious illness. They saved at least 20 lives.
TIL of Dr. Donald Hopkins. He helped eradicate Smallpox, and is on the verge of killing another disease. He's taken Guinea Worm Disease down from 3.5 million cases a year to just 28 cases last year.
From 3.5 million cases in the year 1986 to 9585 cases in the year 2007. Down to 15 reported human cases in the year 2021. 13 cases worldwide in the year 2022.
TIL During the American Revolution, an enslaved man was charged with treason and sentenced to hang. He argued that as a slave, he was not a citizen and could not commit treason against a government to which he owed no allegiance. He was subsequently pardoned.
It also has the benefit of reducing stress and making us feel better. Focusing strictly on the game offers a great distraction from whatever is making one feel anxious or stressed. Also, getting together in a relaxed environment is a good opportunity to blow off some steam.
Playing, especially winning, can release a rush of dopamine in the brain, making the person feel satisfied, excited, and even euphoric. Unlike gambling, this surge of feel-good chemicals from trivia doesn’t have any negative effects. Providing all the more reason to participate!
TIL Romans were known to create tombs for their dogs and gave them epitaphs to remember them by. One such inscription read, “I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home with my own hands 15 years ago.”
TIL hundreds of love letters between two gay World War II soldiers were found and are being made into a book. In one, one of them wrote, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in the future in a more enlightened time. Then all the world could see how in love we are."
TIL A Japanese company has awarded its non-smoking employees 6 extra vacation days to compensate for the smoker’s smoke breaks.
Bored Panda reached out to Brianna Liestman from Trivia Mafia - a bar operation based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the guys behind it kindly agreed to tell us more about this game. They are known to produce the highest-quality quiz nights in bars, taprooms, distilleries, and private events. It's a lot of fun!
They firmly believe that such games help to be more sure of one's intelligence. "I would say that trivia nights help increase a person's confidence in their intellect. So many times, players will say "I'm no good at trivia," but then they are the person on their team who came through with the one clutch answer that helped them win the game. So if you want to feel smarter, come to trivia!"
TIL that a 13-year-old opened a hot dog stand in front of his home in Minnesota, causing a complaint to the health department. Instead of shutting him down, the inspectors helped him bring his stand up to code and paid the $87 fee for his permit out of their own pockets.
TIL In 1959, police were called to a segregated library in S. Carolina when a 9yr-old Black boy refused to leave. He later got a PhD in Physics from MIT, and died in 1986, one of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger. The library that refused to lend him books is now named after him.
TIL of Adolfo Kaminsky, a 18 year-old French forger who faked IDs for Jews during WWII. He once worked for 3 days straight to make papers for 300 children until he passed out. He kept his work a secret - his own daughter only learned the details while writing a book about him.
We also got in touch with Brie Zulkiewicz, who runs online trivia games on her Instagram account on Thursdays. Players can put their answers in a question box via an Instagram story and this week's game is ski theme-inspired. It's a great way to exercise your brain without leaving your sofa.
She sees trivia as a great way to look back on the information we already have in our brains. "Personally, I think participating in trivia helps boost memory and recall. I often receive messages from my players telling me facts and anecdotes that they were reminded of by one of my questions.
TIL that everyone in Singapore above the age of 21 is automatically registered as an organ donor. Opting out from this Act will result in you being put at the very bottom of the organ priority list, should you need an organ transplantation.
TIL when NASA used electronic computers for the first time - to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth - officials called on Katherine Johnson to verify the computer's numbers; Glenn had asked for her specifically and had refused to fly unless Johnson verified the calculations.
TIL there’s a cemetery in the Netherlands consisting of 8,300 US veterans who died in WWII. For the past 70 years, Dutch families have come to the cemetery every Sunday to care for a grave they adopted. Hundreds of people are currently on a waiting list to become caretakers.
When asked what makes a successful quiz night Brianna from Trivia Mafia told us "There are many factors that make trivia work. The first is the quality of questions: Trivia Mafia's approach to trivia is to avoid too many "either you know it or you don't" questions. We write round themes, and those theme descriptions are often really helpful in giving players a clue as to what the answer to a question could be.
For instance, at a recent trivia night, I am the kind of person who is hopeless with sports knowledge. But because I knew just enough about major players in baseball and I knew the rules of the round, I was able to get the answer."
They let us know that the second one is having a great host who is engaging and keeps people coming back week after week.
And the third is meeting the audience where they are. " Our games are typically 90-120 minutes, and our hosts have flexibility within that time frame to pace trivia appropriately. Some players and businesses want the host to move a little faster so people can close their tabs or get their kids to bed on a school night. Other places want a longer experience, where folks are really taking their time answering questions, eating and/or drinking, and enjoying a night out."
TIL: Researchers taught African grey parrots to buy food using tokens. They were then paired up, one parrot given ten tokens and the other none. Without any incentive for sharing, parrots with tokens started to give some to their broke partners so that everyone could eat.
TIL A Scottish woman was sentenced to death by hanging around 1721. Maggie Dickson was hung, declared dead, put in a wooden coffin and carted off. She woke up en route to the churchyard, the law said her sentence had been carried out and she lived another 40 years known as 'Half-hangit Maggie'.
In some places it was custom if the person lived or the rope broke after being hanged. They where then free from there transgressions. They got live.
TIL that In 2018, A hacker broke into people’s routers (100,000 of them) and patched their vulnerabilities up so that they couldn’t be abused by other hackers.
Brie also highlighted the importance of knowing your audience. "The most important part of planning a successful trivia night is knowing your audience. You will want very different questions for a busy crowded night at a sports bar versus a bridal shower brunch. Questions should always be tailored to ensure that the group is engaged and entertained rather than always prioritizing difficulty.
TIL in 1992, a California middle school ordered teachers to cover up all "obscene" words in Fahrenheit 451 with black marker before issuing copies to students. The school stopped this practice after local newspapers commented on the irony of defacing a book that condemns censorship.
TIL that in 1920, the town of Jackson, Wyoming elected an all-female town council by a margin of 2-1 over the men, drawing the most voters the town had ever seen. Known as the "pettycoat rulers," the women served for 3 years and did a great deal to clean up the notoriously lawless town.
TIL Dogs get sprayed by Skunks so often because Skunks lift their tails as a warning, Dogs see this as "Come smell my butt" which is the EXACT OPPOSITE MESSAGE from what the Skunk is trying to send.
Lastly, we were curious to know the secrets that could help one score a win in a game of trivia. Trivia Mafia told us "Make more friends with different interests! The teams that do the best with trivia have a really wide Venn diagram of knowledge, even if there aren't a lot of people on the team.
Intergenerational teams also do really well, because there are zeitgeist moments that will be obvious to them that won't be as obvious to the person across the table. They can work together using their individual strengths."
TIL mercy dogs were trained during World War I to comfort mortally wounded soldiers as they died in no man's land.
TIL about the symbiotic relationship of wolves and ravens. Ravens will lead wolves to prey so that they can take a portion of the leftovers, play games of tail chasing with each other, and develop individual friendships.
A school principal once made a student who'd gotten into trouble sit in the basement & read the U.S. Constitution as punishment. That student (who committed the Constitution to memory as a result) was Thurgood Marshall, who went on to become the first Black Supreme Court justice.
Brie's advice to success is practice. "Trivia, like many hobbies, is something a player can improve on with practice. In general, staying aware of current events and taking time to read for enjoyment will improve your odds of success."
TIL that the firm Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees on 9/11. The CEO, who was taking his child to school that day, later distributed $180 million to the families and offered jobs to all children of the victims. 57 of those children were employed by Cantor Fitzgerald as of 2016.
TIL of Waverly Woodson, a black medic who treated at least 200 injured men on D-Day while injured himself. As he hit the beach a shell tore apart his landing craft, filling him with shrapnel. Despite this, he set up an aid station and treated wounds for 30 hours, at one point even amputating a foot.
TIL Joseph Bazalgette, the man who designed London's sewers in the 1860's, said 'Well, we're only going to do this once and there's always the unforeseen' and doubled the pipe diameter. If he had not done this, it would have overflowed in the 1960's (it's still in use today).
Mad respect for engineering something to LAST AS LONG AS POSSIBLE vs our current BS Planned Obsolescence "engineering". Thanks, Capitalism. I hate it.
Brie signed off by saying "I always encourage players not to focus on winning or losing, but to lean into what they got out of the process. There are almost always questions that one can’t answer, but paying attention and reflecting on them can often be as personally beneficial as knowing the right answer."
TIL about the Danish Protest Pig. In the early 20th century, Danes living under Prussian rule were banned from displaying the Danish flag. To protest this, they bred pigs with a red and white color pattern similar to their flag. The breed is now called "Danish Protest Pig".
Slaveholders in the US knew that enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, the U.S. tried to get Mexico to sign a fugitive slave treaty, but Mexico refused to sign such a treaty, insisting that all enslaved people were free once they set foot on Mexican soil.
... so the US then invaded Mexico and annexed a bunch of Mexican territory, like Texas and New Mexico which had been slavery-free in Mexico but were now integrated as a slave states in the US...
TIL that in 1916 there was a proposed Amendment to the US Constitution that would put all acts of war to a national vote, and anyone voting yes would have to register as a volunteer for service in the United States Army.
TIL after losing her position in her university's anatomy department in 1938, Rita Levi-Montalcini set up a laboratory in her bedroom and studied the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos. This work led to her discovery of nerve growth factor, for which she was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1986.
TIL: Late wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow once saved three children from a burning house and 40% of his skin was left with second degree burns forcing him to retire and hospitalized for two months. Bam Bam said he had "no regrets" of his act of courage, as long as all three kids were safe.
TIL that paper books still outsells e-books by a huge margin, even among young people.
The Curie family is the family with the most Nobel Prizes. Marie Curie won two Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry. Her husband Pierre Curie won a Nobel in physics. Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie won a Nobel prize in chemistry.
True. And they deserved it. Marie Curie never cared about the award but did care about the money. It got her out of a leaky shed and into a fully equipped laboratory. Which was what the Nobel prize was initially intended for.
TIL after Marcelo Bielsa became manager of Leeds United FC, he found out that the average fan had to work 3 hours to pay for a match ticket. He called his players together and made them pick up litter from around the training ground for 3 hours, to appreciate how the fans laboured for their passion.
In World War 1, Nobel prize winning physicist Marie Curie developed mobile X-Ray stations to travel to the frontlines and assist army surgeons and preventing amputations when limbs were still intact. It's estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were x-rayed with her units.
TIL in the months before his sudden death, former Mythbuster Grant Imahara built a fully animatronic Baby Yoda. Having spent 3 months of his personal time designing, programming, and 3D printing the project, he intended to bring it to hospitals to cheer up sick children.
TIL Joseph Strauss, the engineer of the golden Gate Bridge, mandated that a net be installed under the bridge for safety while being built. This was revolutionary at the time. The net caught 19 men who fell, saving all of them from a certain death.
TIL Lithuania withdrew from the 1992 Olympics due to the lack of money after the fall of the USSR. The Grateful Dead agreed to fund transportation costs for the basketball team along with Grateful Dead designs for the team's jerseys and shorts. They went on to win the Bronze.
Penguins can drink saltwater because of glands near their eyes that remove salt from their bloodstream and then they can sneeze out the extra salt.
Ditto for seagulls, albatrosses and marine iguanas. Sharks have a similar gland in their r*ctum.
TIL that Majel Barrett, the voice of the Starfleet computer on Star Trek, recorded an entire library of phonetic sounds before she died which allowed her voice to be used as the computer for future generations.
TIL Saudi Arabia accidentally printed thousands of textbooks containing an image of Yoda sitting next to King Faisal while he signed the 1945 UN charter.
Elinor Powell was a black nurse who served during WWII. She was assigned to work at a POW camp, like most African-American nurses at the time, and fell in love with a German POW there. They married and had children despite it being illegal in both the U.S and Germany during this time period.
Love is love, and if you don't like that, then you can just leave the planet 😁
Vears at Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in Montana have jobs: try to open coolers/dumpsters/containers of treats. If bears can't make more than a tiny hole, the item is certified bear-proof. The GWDC is the only place where products can earn a certificate from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.
At Healesville Sanctuary here in Victoria, the telecom companies test their cables in the cockatoo enclosure to see if they're bird proof. Cockies have very strong beaks and love to tear stuff up.
TIL that Bill Murray once drove a taxi cab so that the cab driver could spend time playing saxophone in the backseat. The cab driver mentioned that he never had time to play his sax since he had to work 14 hours a day. Murray took the driver’s seat so that he could finally play some tunes.
TIL: In a village in India, an Indian robin had made a nest and laid her eggs on the village's switchboard. The village decided to go without street lights for over a month for the safety of the bird and to allow her eggs to hatch. After 45 days, the bird and its hatchlings safely flew away.
While I love this ... the standard procedure isn't like that. Around the world, any animal causing an ever so slightly discomfort to humans, is usually relocated or downright killed. Compassion, often, is executed well-visible towards cats or dogs, while any other animal can't face a worse atrocity than being handled by humans... Exceptions made for single birds or bats or beavers are worth being shown here EXACTLY because they are exceptions. Sadly, adressing this usually leads to defensiveness and complainery, as if mentioning the obligation to - at the very least - acknowledge the impact people have on animals would, somehow, cause a more severe discomfort in the humans (who chose to act like they do) than the violently brought-upon death is to the animal. Entitlement.......
TIL that when filming the TV series "The Mandalorian" in 2019, the crew ran out of Stormtrooper costumes, so they reached out to the local branch of a Star Wars fan organisation, whose members came to join the filming in their own home-made Stormtrooper costumes.
I'm willing to bet they're talking about the 501st Legion, a Star Wars cosplay group with members all around the globe. It's members are very disciplined, have amazing costumes and are very knowlegeable about Star Wars. Kind of how when you need some extras for a WW1/2 thing there is always a WW1/2 reenactment group willing to help out if you only ask.
TIL: In order to get improvements in their job security amidst the emergence of a rival bus line, bus drivers in Okayama, Japan decided to go on strike in a unique way in 2018. While on strike, they supported the community by continuing to drive their routes, but simply not charging customers.
TIL that baby owls sleep down on their stomach because their heads are too heavy. They do that until they are large enough to sleep upright.
After Universidad del Mar was closed by Chilean government due to major financial irregularities, artist Papas Fritas managed to enter its vault and burn tuition contracts amounting to $500 million, making difficult to prove students owed the university this money.
Note: this post originally had 120 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
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I didn't see a single one here that I knew from general knowledge to be false. Well done, BP.
Also a few ones on there I hadn't come across before which is impressive as I love obscure trivia!
Load More Replies...
This was a good article, far better than the celeb BS that we usually get
I didn't see a single one here that I knew from general knowledge to be false. Well done, BP.
Also a few ones on there I hadn't come across before which is impressive as I love obscure trivia!
Load More Replies... This was a good article, far better than the celeb BS that we usually get
