30 New ‘Today I Learned’ Facts That Prove It’s Never Too Late To Learn Something New

TIL about Tim Wong who successfully and singlehandedly repopulated the rare California Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly in San Francisco. In the past few years, he’s cultivated more than 200 pipevine plants (their only food source) and gives thousands of caterpillars to his local Botanical Garden.

TIL when the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) denied permission to Marian Anderson for a concert at Constitution Hall under a "white performers-only", First Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR and arranged for Anderson to perform before an integrated crowd of more than 75,000 people.

TIL about environmental activist Julia “Butterfly” Hill who lived in a 1500 year old California redwood tree (known as Luna) 180 feet (55 mm) off the ground for 738 days in order to prevent it from being chopped down by Pacific Lumber Company. She successfully saved the tree.

TIL that Javier Bardem's performance as Anton Chigurh in 'No Country for Old Men' was named the 'Most Realistic Depiction of a Psychopath' by an independent group of psychologists in the 'Journal of Forensic Sciences'.

TIL: When the Titanic rammed an iceberg, William Murdoch, the officer in charge, was portrayed in the film as shooting a passenger and then committing s**cide. In reality, he was last seen trying to fill as many lifeboats as possible and heroically went down with the ship.

TIL GM recalled 800k cars in 2014 for faulty ignitions. The cars would shut off while being driven which meant drivers lost power steering/brakes, and the airbags wouldn't deploy. They knew about the problem since 2005 but never fixed it because it would be 'too expensive'. 124 people died.

TIL that people with dementia think that stuff like a black doormat isn’t a doormat, but a deep hole in the floor. Due to these visual perception problems, people with dementia avoid stepping the doormat, and this is sometimes used to keep them from leaving their care facilites.

TIL that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was written by composer Frank Loesser in 1944 for he and his wife to sing at the end of their housewarming party as a way to tell guests it was time to leave. Afterwards, they were invited to tons of parties with the expectation of the song being the closing act.

TIL: A camel after standing in 109 F (43 C) heat all day decapitated his absent-minded owner after he remembered to untie him.

TIL When Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon, inside his pocket was a small piece of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer

TIL of the Deep Lake Water Cooling System (DLWC), a natural cooling system that extracts cold water from deep within Lake Ontario, and then transfers it through a system of pipes and exchanges to cool downtown Toronto. Compared to a traditional air conditioning system, it uses up 75% less energy

TIL in 1997 a Danish woman visiting New York City was arrested and strip-searched for leaving her baby in a stroller outside a restaurant while she and the baby's father dined inside, a common practice in Denmark. She later sued the city and was awarded $66,000.

TIL Isaac Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books, 380 short stories and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. He was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He had a triple bypass in 1983 during which got HIV from a blood transfusion which was kept secret 'til 10 years after death

TIL Jurassic Park was meant to use stop motion instead of CGI, but two artists worked on a CGI T-Rex in secret, and once they finished it, they quietly put a video of it on screen when Kathleen Kennedy visited their office. the video convinced Kennedy, Spielberg, and the rest of the team to use CGI.

TIL The prototype of the Rolls Royce Ghost was so quiet inside that it made test drivers sick. The engineers had to remove some of the noise isolating material, and create seats that vibrated at specific frequencies to introduce some noise into the interior.

TIL the nurse,Caroline Hampton, helped popularize surgical gloves. She almost quit her job as a surgical nurse at John Hopkins due to severe hand eczema caused by surgical disinfectant until her boss bought her custom rubber gloves. Other staff members copied this and found they made work easier.

TIL if a camel rejects her new-born or there's a need to adopt an orphaned calf, Mongol herders use a chanting ritual accompanied by fiddle or flute to coax her into accepting the calf. The camel mother may act aggressive initially, so the herders will change the melody depending on her behavior

TIL of Daniel Kish. Blind since the age of 13 months old, he taught himself to navigate by clicking his tongue and listening for echoes, similar to echolocation in bats. Kish and other researchers believe that echolocation produces images similar to sight.

TIL that nature has evolved different species into crabs at least five separate times - a phenomenon known as Carcinisation

TIL Ian Fleming originally wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened. He chose James Bond because it was the dullest name he had ever heard.

TIL that in 2002, two airplanes collided in mid-air killing everyone aboard. Two years later, the air traffic controller was murdered as revenge.

TIL in 1986 a Russian commercial pilot made a bet with the first officer that he could land blind with curtains over the cockpit windows. He lost the bet, crashing and killing 70 people

TIL Andromeda galaxy has already started merging with our Milky Way

TIL a cancer treatment known as Dynamic Phototherapy has the side effect of giving humans a slight level of night vision. Under this treatment, the retina becomes able to process light at wavelengths higher than the visible light domain.

TIL Boris Mikhailov, captain of the USSR hockey team, was offered a $1 million contract to leave Russia in 1980 after the Miracle on Ice. However, he declined as the KGB was standing next to him when the offer was made.

TIL A woman put over a million miles on her Hyundai Elantra and was given a special badge and a brand new car

TIL a park ranger sat down in his office on Rinca Island and was attacked by a Komodo dragon hiding under his desk. The cleaner had the left the door open the night before. The smell of blood attracted more dragons outside. The ranger was taken to the hospital and survived but he has nightmares.

TIL that the name George has the same root word as Geography and Geology, and means "Earth worker" or farmer.

TIL studies show the reason why we "click" with certain people is due to people's brain waves being sync in wavelengths called the alpha–mu band, or what scientists call brain-to-brain coupling, and mirror each other neurologically in terms of what they are focusing on.

TIL that the violin that was played as the Titanic sunk was rediscovered in an attic and auctioned off for $1.6 million in 2013.

TIL that every December 21, the inner chamber of Newgrange a prehistoric Irish monument that predates Stonehenge is illuminated for 18 minutes by the rising sun.

TIL: In 2019, researchers from Tel Aviv University successfully 3D-printed a human heart using a patient's own cells. Biological materials were reportedly used to "completely match the immunological, cellular, biochemical, and anatomical properties of the patient"

TIL: During the Great Depression, banker Mark Welch Munroe convinced struggling families in Quincy, Florida to buy Coca-Cola shares that traded at 19 dollars. Later, the town became the single richest town per capita in the US with at least 67 millionaires.

TIL that in 1908, Harriet Tubman opened the 'Harriet Tubman Home for the Elderly', a retirement home for indigent and aged African-Americans. Among the residents was Tubman herself, who was admitted in 1911, and would remain there until her death in 1913.

TIL Ivory Coast's Murielle Ahoure couldn’t find an Ivory Coast flag so she celebrated her 60m gold with Irish flag given to her by a spectator

TIL A type of eco burial is a mushroom suit, which digests your body after you die, and Luke Perry was buried in one.

TIL 4 Spider-Man suits were stolen from Spider-Man back in 2002. The suits cost $50,000 USD to make and Sony offered $25,000 USD for their return. It lead to a 18 month investigation, and the suits were found in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. It was stolen by a security guard who worked on set.

TIL that it’s a tradition in Italy to watch the movie Trading Places on Christmas Eve, with millions tuning in every year.

TIL that in 2009, French free diver Stéphane Mifsud held his breath underwater for 11 minutes and 35 seconds.

TIL that vanilla beans (like coffee beans) all taste differently based on their country or origin. Some taste like figs, others like cherries, some like licorice and all have a primary flavor of vanilla.

TIl the US strategic petroleum reserves are stored in underground caverns carved out of salt. Salt does not react with the oil and is self-healing. The plastic behavior of salt will cause it to naturally close fractures or gaps and prevent any leakage.

TIL of Margaret Thatcher's 'Britain Awake' speech in 1976 where she stated the USSR was "bent on world domination", had failed in economic & human terms, its only recourse to become a superpower was military means. Soviet newspapers dubbed her the "Iron Lady" which she adopted.

TIL that the notion of a "white Christmas" was popularized by the writings of Charles Dickens, whose stories that depicted a snowy Christmas season were based on his childhood, which happened to be the coldest decade in England in over a century

TIL Dexter, the U.S. Navy’s very last working horse, was stationed in Philadelphia to haul trash, and upon his passing in 1968, he was buried with full military honors.

TIL Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" is the 4th best selling record in all of history, with only Michael Jackson's Thriller, ACDC's Back in Black and Whitney Houston's Bodyguard soundtrack selling more.

TIL that Olympians can use the OLY lettering on any official documentation after their name much like when one gets a royal honor or PhD

TIL about Snap-dragon, a game Victorians played around Christmas. Raisins would be put in a shallow bowl filled with brandy, and the brandy would be lit on fire. Then players had to extract the raisins without burning their hands and then eat the brandy-soaked raisins on fire.

TIL That during WW2 Heinz invented a self heating soup can that would frequently explode.

TIL about Scott Tucker who set up illegal high interest payday loans in states that banned them. After getting caught, he tried to transfer ownership to Indian tribes who are exempt from payday laws. He is now serving 16 years in federal prison

TIL that the majority of silent era films are irrevocably lost and that at least half of all sound films from 1927 to 1950 are lost

TIL that in the 1950s, most American shoes stores used powerful x-ray machines as a sales gimmick that allowed customers to observe the fit of their feet inside shoes in real time. The machines often lacked adequate shielding and were commonly used to fit children's shoes.

TIL Ray Bradbury wrote the first draft of Fahrenheit 451 on a typewriter in UCLA Library’s basement that cost 10 cents for 30 minutes. 9 days and $9.80 later he had a short story titled ‘ The Fireman’ that was later expanded into Fahrenheit 451

TIL that former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt was a heavy smoker. He was well known for lighting up during TV interviews and talk shows. He was also charged with defying smoking bans. In 1981 he got a pacemaker. Despite these he died as the longest living chancellor at the age of 96.

TIL about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre aka the Amritsar Incident where in 1919 the British Imperial army opened fire, without warning, on a peaceful gathering protesting the inhumanities of the colonialist government leading to thousand of deaths of unarmed men, women and children.