30 ‘Today I Learned’ Facts That Show It’s Never Too Late To Learn (New Pics)
I hope you’ve got your thinking caps on and you’ve got plenty of dark chocolate that our brains love so much stacked somewhere nearby, dear Pandas, because we’re seriously going to push the limits of your mind today. They say that knowledge is power, and we’re about to make you very powerful, indeed.
We’re continuing our tradition of sharing the best posts shared on the ‘Today I Learned’ online community with all of you, so go on take a peek at what curious internet users were proud to have figured out about the world recently. As you’re scrolling down, don’t forget to upvote the facts that were new to you as well. And if you’ve got any other interesting TIL-worthy things to share with everyone, then the comment section is the place for you to share your knowledge.
When you’re done absorbing all the history, science, and other knowledge from this post, we cordially invite you to have a look at Bored Panda’s previous in-depth TIL articles here, here, and here. Enjoy!
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TIL In Kaziranga, a national park in north-eastern India rangers can shoot and kill poachers to protect the Indian one-horned rhinoceros with legal immunity, reducing rhino poaching.
Everyday, three rhinos are killed by poachers in South Africa, for their horns. At this rate, Rhinos might go into extinction by 2030. A 'shoot-at-sight' is the best way to stop this.
TIL after the holidays, the Rockefeller Christmas tree is cut into lumber for Habitat for Humanity homes
TIL that Gary Sinise, A.K.A. "Lieutenant Dan" from Forrest Gump, started the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011, and it has raised $194 million for wounded veterans
The TIL online group is absolutely massive. Founded way back in late 2008, r/todayilearned has since then grown into a thriving community of 26.4 million people. They focus on sharing verified, trustworthy facts and avoid opinions and subjective interpretations.
In short, they do their darn best to check every single fact that gets posted on the subreddit. All with the help of the sprawling community, of course. If you want to be a valued member of the community, then you’ve got to be willing to put in the time and do at least some rudimentary research. What this means is being humble enough to admit when you’re wrong and when you don’t like the facts.
TIL In 1975 Elvis went to see a movie with his gf. He was spotted by fans and they went crazy. His gf walks up and pranks the fans saying to Elvis, "Charlie, you're not using that Elvis bit again are you? Come on, you're not telling these people that you're Elvis again are you? The fans left.
TIL After Ayrton Senna's death, it was discovered he secretly donated an estimated $400 million of his personal fortune to help poor children
TIL women in Viking Age Scandinavia did enjoy an unusual degree of freedom for their day. They could own property, request a divorce and reclaim their dowries if their marriages ended.
Not too long ago, I had an in-depth chat about learning things on the internet and choosing our future paths in education with Steven Wooding, a member of the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom.
He told Bored Panda that the internet “can be both” a tool for good and evil, for education and distraction. It all depends on how we use this tool.
"The internet reflects the world around it, so everything you find in the world will also appear on the internet. I see it as a great shortcut to information (gone are the days of having to visit a library) that can speed up your learning and ability to do things," Steven told Bored Panda earlier.
TIL Indonesia put a nation wide stop on manta ray fishing after it was calculated that a single animal is worth an estimated US$1 million over its lifetime in tourism versus its value of $40-$500 when killed
TIL Sir Paul McCartney's mother (Mary McCarthy) died when he was just 14 years old. He struggled with the grief for around 8 years, until one night she appeared to him in a dream saying things like "Don't worry, live your life, let it be". From this he wrote the world famous Beatles song "Let it be"
Oh my goodness. I just understood the part "When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me". I thought it was a reference to Mary, the mother of god
TIL that in 1993 the Barbie Liberation Organization switched the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls causing the barbies to say phrases like "vengeance is mine" and G.I. Joes to say "The beach is the place for summer." 300 to 500 dolls were modified.
If Barbie says it it's psycho, but if Joe does it it's super cool. Double standards.
According to Steven if we find ourselves constantly distracted and unable to focus while online, we should set clear boundaries for learning, work, and entertainment. “Set aside specific times for studying and other times for fun,” he suggested.
Few of us are strangers to burnout. In Steven’s view, burnout and apathy ambush us if things get too stressful or too boring.
“I believe that burnout awaits us at the two ends of a graph in the shape of an inverted letter 'U.' The graph represents the level of difficulty of what we're doing. If it is too high (e.g., we get too stressed, feel too insecure), we will eventually give up. But the same happens when the difficulty level is too low: when we're doing exactly the same thing over and over again," he told me.
TIL Molly Brown survived the Titanic and was rescued by the Carpathia. Aboard the Carpathia, a battered Brown did what she could to help the other survivors, including raising money from the wealthy to help poor passengers. Her acts of heroism earned her the nickname "the Unsinkable Mrs. Brown."
TIL of Cain's Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers, a 1934 mystery novel printed with its 100 pages out of order. To solve the puzzle, readers must determine the correct page order as well the names of both the six murderers and six victims. The mystery has only ever been solved by three people.
TIL of Herman Francis Mark, an Austrian scientist and son of a Jew, who chose to flee Austria in 1938. He clandestinely bought platinum wire, worth roughly $50,000, which he bent into coat hangers while his wife knitted covers so that the hangers were able to be taken out of the country.
For a period of time after the rise to power of Hitler/ the Nazis, Jews were allowed to leave Germany, but have to leave their fortune behind. So he was smuggling his money out of country.
"My little secret for avoiding apathy is giving myself little challenges, difficulties, or assumptions that I need to stick to during my tasks. This way, I can polish my skills, avoid burnout, and (as a bonus side effect) get better results over time. Try to be conscious of 'the burnout curve'—and adjust your life's challenges so that they always hit somewhere near the top of the curve,” Steven said.
The expert opened up about how we should pick our path for college and university if we’re feeling unable to choose. In his opinion, we should listen to our hearts. “Don’t choose based on things like the job you could get, as you’ll always be wishing you were doing the thing that really interests you," he said.
"If you have no idea, ask yourself what subject at school did you enjoy most? Or what other activity do you find yourself doing? Can that be a starting point as to what to study at university?"
TIL Dr. Charles R. Drew, an African American, developed improved techniques for blood storage, which saved thousands of Allied forces' lives during WWII. In 1942, however, he resigned as director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank because of their exclusion of African-Americans' blood.
People were pretty dumb back then. The color of one's skin has no relationship with the blood in one's veins. Wait, people are still dumb now.
TIL a Brazilian priest strapped himself to 1000 balloons as a fundraising event for truckers. He set off into the sky and then disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. His body was recovered months later.
TIL that a hurricane hit Hawaii when Jurrasic Park was filming. The sets were destroyed and the cast and crew were stranded in a leaking hotel ballroom. Steven Spielberg played cards with the kids for hours and told them stories to distract them. Real footages of the hurricane were added to the film
TIL of the end of Brazil's monarchy. The last emperor; Pedro II's liberal regime pushed for women's rights, ended slavery, gave power to the parliament and respected freedom of speech. But he was overthrown, exiled and replaced by a republican regime that was practically a military dictatorship.
TIL the classic Kong dog toy was created after an auto-repair shop owner's dog kept chewing a VW Bus suspension part
TIL that On July 21, 1972, George Carlin was arrested and charged with violating obscenity laws after performing his famous "Seven Dirty Words" routine at Milwaukee's Summerfest. He would go on to be arrested a total of seven times for reciting that same routine.
For all the you rightwing culture warriors out there this is what a real violation of freedom of speech looks likes, it's not a bunch of people complaining or boycotting an artist because of something they said it's the government actually taking punitive actions against a civilian for stuff they said, which even then there are agreed upon limits such as passing information on how to make a bomb etc.
TIL in 1944, a 21 year old tail gunner of a Lancaster Bomber jumped from his aircraft after being shot down over Germany. He fell 18,000 ft without a parachute and survived with a sprained leg as his only injury.
TIL that a pilot's 16 year old son was allowed to sit at the plane's cockpit of an Aeroflot flight while it was on autopilot. He disengaged the autopilot, triggering a series of events which led to the plane crashing and the death of all 63 passengers and 12 crew onboard.
TIL that a couple days before the deadly eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902, the town of St. Pierre was plagued by in invasion of giant centipedes and pit vipers, claiming the lives of 50 people.
TIL teenagers take more risk not only due to an undeveloped frontal cortex, but also due to higher dopamine response that provides greater rewards for novel activities
TIL after the massive success of his #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know", Gotye stopped recording solo music, went back to his old band and hasn't released a song under the Gotye name ever since
TIL the original John Hughes cut of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" ran 3.5 hours because there was so much improv between Steve Martin and John Candy, and that that cut is probably lost forever.
TIL two thirds of Argentina's population is of Italian heritage. They fled there for economic opportunities and to escape devastating wars. It is the only other country besides Italy with an Italian heritage majority population.
TIL that in 1924, a tunnel network was discovered underneath Washington D.C. Speculation behind the network's origins included a Confederate hideout or a liquor depot for bootleggers; they were actually dug by the Smithsonian Institute's entomologist Harrison G. Dyar, who 'did it for exercise'.
TIL Utqiagvik, Alaska. People often call the town "the top of the world," When the sun sets on November 18, it will stay below the horizon until January 23, resulting in a polar night that lasts for about 66 days.
TIL that the most successful predator in Africa is the African wild dog. If a pack targets a prey, there’s an 85% chance they’ll bring it down successfully
African wild dogs are probably the best candidate for the Hollywood cliche of a predator that hunts the protagonist to unreasonable lengths. Predators will give up if you seem too difficult to catch (unlike Hollywood depictions). But wild dogs, once they've decided you're food, not much can change their mind. They are terrifying hunters. Definitely an animal that I wouldn't want to meet when I'm lost.
TIL Elvis Presley Never Wrote Any of His Own Songs despite being one of the most recognizable musicians of all time.
TIL Richard Scrushy, charged with masterminding $2.7 billion fraud case, came up with a novel strategy: "[play] the religion card" and become a televangelist to curry favor with jurors (the trial was held in Alabama). He was acquitted of all charges.
TIL Solitary bees are considered "super pollenators" with a 95% pollination rate compared to honeys bees at 5%
TIL Rosemary Kennedy, sister of JFK and RFK, had a forced lobotomy arranged by her father when she was just 23, leaving her incapacitated for the rest of her life.
TIL that some of the boulevard medians in Milwaukee, Wisconsin have 8-10 ft deep bunkers with toilets in them, originally installed in the 1930s as a convenience for city workers who were out and about all day without access to a toilet
Do they still work? I bet if they don't alot of people left some gross surprises if they were left open
TIL the prosthetics in The Elephant Man (1980) were designed directly from body casts of Joseph Merrick (aka the Elephant Man) made in 1890 & preserved for 90 years in a hospital museum. The prosthetics were so acclaimed that audiences pressured The Oscars into creating the "Best Makeup" award
TIL the heir apparent of Ottoman Empire fought in WW2 and participated in the Normandy landings as an American soldier.
TIL: Chili peppers, whose spiciness is now so prominent in Indian, Chinese, Thai, and other Asian cuisines, originated in South America and were unknown in Asia until world-wide sea trade first brought them there the mid 1500's.
TIL that 18-yr old rich socialite Ginevra King, in love with Scott Fitzgerald, wrote & sent him a Gatsby-like short story. In it, she is trapped in a loveless marriage with a wealthy man yet still pines for him, a former lover from her past. 7 yr later this became the outline for 'The Great Gatsby'
So, a man took an idea from a woman, did not credit her, and then profited immensely from it. Same old bs.
TIL In the last four years of Elvis Presley’s life, he had been prescribed 19,000 doses of drugs. In 1977 alone[the year of his death], Dr. Nicholpoulous had written 199 prescriptions totaling more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics to Elvis.
A shame that "doctors" would do that. He was a drug addict and needed help.
TIL about Crater of Diamond State Park in Pike County, Arkansas. The park has a 37.5-acre plowed field, the world's only diamond-bearing site accessible to the public. Diamonds have continuously been discovered in the field since 1906, including one of the world's only colorless, flawless diamonds.
I used to be editor of the local newspaper there. Newsworthy finds (multi-carat) were usually made about three or four times a year. The town itself only has around 1,000 people, but has at least 500 hotel rooms - and they frequently don't have enough. There are lots of international visitors, with the proportion from Japan being higher than most other countries.
TIL when brainstorming the time travel plot for Star Trek: First Contact, they considered sending the crew back to the Renaissance, befriending Leonardo da Vinci, and having sword fights alongside phaser fights. The idea was scrapped for being too campy and Patrick Stewart refused to wear tights.
TIL that a tree in Glastonbury, England, is said to flower on Christmas day—and people were disappointed that it did not obey the switch to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
It has been cut down in 1992 because it was pronounced dead in 1991. Full story: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/glastonburys-christmas-tree
TIL about Henneguya salminicola, the first known animal that doesn't use oxygen to breathe. It is an 8-millimeter white parasite that infects the flesh of Chinook salmon
TIL fluorine is much less common in the universe than most elements of a similar atomic weight, because the usual nuclear reactions in stars cannot create it, but can destroy it.
Fluorine is a chemical element with the symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at standard conditions as a highly toxic, pale yellow diatomic gas. As the most electro negative element, it is extremely reactive, as it reacts with all other elements, except for argon, neon, and helium. fig1-619f8...41da50.jpg 
TIL that Michigan ranks number one as the state with the highest percentage of water (41.5% of its total area). Sources of water are so abundant there that no one in the state is ever more than 6 miles from a body of water.
TIL that the first airship to be lifted by helium used most of the helium available in the world at the time to fill its 59,000 cubic meter volume.
How is it obtained, since technically speaking, it isn't manufactured?
TIL about Picher, a mining town in Oklahoma that was left so badly contaminated and unstable by decades of unrestricted lead and zinc mining that it was evacuated and declared uninhabitable by the EPA
TIL the 2006 movie Idiocracy was released in only 7 cities and expanded to 130 theaters rather than the typical 600, the film's distributor was entirely absent in promoting it, and while posters were released to theaters, no movie trailers, no ads, no press kits, and only two stills were released.
TIL because pendulum clocks are unreliable at sea, the first attempt at a marine chronometer was undertaken in 1673 utilizing a balance wheel and spring for regulation instead of a pendulum. This opened the way for the first modern pocket watches and wristwatches.
To calculate accurate longitude using a timepiece (set to local noon, to compare with noon of origin) they needed a clock keeping accurate time at sea. There was a competition in England around 1760 to invent one, which went to John Harrison, who made increasingly accurate chronometers. Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Harrison-British-horologist
TIL the practice of playing music to the callers on hold was created by a factory owner who discovered that a loose wire in his factory's phone lines made the building a giant receiver. The broadcast from a close radio station was transmitted through the wire and played when calls were put on hold.
I'm sure he would have kept it a secret if he had known how people in the future would be tortured with mindnumbing muzak.
TIL: In 1958 Great Lakes freighter Carl D. Bradley sank with the loss of 33 lives. Over the objections of witnesses who survived the sinking, the Coast Guard concluded the ship did not break in two, shielding its owners from liability. In 1997 the shipwreck was discovered in 2 sections 90 feet apart
TIL of a vaudeville group that tried to sue a pair of newspapers for libel, after the papers ran scathing reviews of their act in 1898. The judge ruled in favor of the newspaper after the group performed their act in court
TIL that author Lee Child was inspired to name his character Jack Reacher after a shopping trip. An old lady asked for his help in reaching for a can of pears; Child's wife, when seeing this, commented that if his writing career didn't work out, he could 'always get a job as a reacher'.
Just think, he could have been Jack Stander, or Breather, or Farter.
TIL that several A-list actors turned down the role of Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry because of excessive violence. Burt Lancaster and Paul Newman turned it down because they both disagreed with the character's seemingly right-wing politics, Newman recommended Clint Eastwood for the role instead.
TIL that a Millard Fillmore Society used to gather annually at his grave to remember how forgettable a president he was (1850-1853)
TIL Walt Disney tried to join WW1 so he can fight the Germans but was rejected because he was to young so he forged the date of birth on his birth certificate, and joined the Red Cross to become an ambulance driver.
He worked with Ray Kroc during WWI. Kroc went on to form an empire of his own.
TIL despite the common theory that “New Coke” was a marketing ploy, the main reason for its launch was it consistently beat Pepsi and Coca Cola Classic in blind taste tests. It performed so well that one bottling company even threatened to sue Coca Cola if they didn’t launch the new product.
TIL Tchaikovsky and his patron shared over 1,200 letters, but only met once by accident. When he wrote her to apologize, she responded that there was nothing to apologize for, and invited him to visit her home to see her new paintings, but at a time when she would be away
TIL a hurricane caused Tim Duncan to take up basketball. He grew up in the US Virgin Islands, and trained to be an Olympic swimmer like his big sister... until Hurricane Hugo destroyed the island's only Olympic pool. He was too afraid of sharks to swim in the ocean, so he tried basketball instead
TIL a 21 year old tried to commit suicide by injecting elemental mercury intravenously. The liquid metal traveld to the pulmonary capillaries where it stopped, causing a non-fatal embolism.
But then what? Presumably they did die from mercury poisoning or something.
TIL the premise for The Smashing Pumpkins music video "Today" was inspired by a memory from Billy Corgan when the local ice cream truck driver quit his job, and he ended up giving away all of the ice cream in the truck to all the neighborhood kids.
TIL about Andrzej Bargiel, a Polish ski mountaineer who became the first person to ski down from the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain. He climbed without supplementary oxygen and skied down in about 7 hours.
TIL Antoine Walker has earned $108 million throughout his NBA career and he filed for bankruptcy in 2010, just two years after retirement.
I do not understand how ppl with this much money lose it all in general, even with only 1 mil I would be fine for life
TIL when the Romanovs were executed, the Tsar’s daughters were the last to die as their clothes had diamonds sown into then giving them some protection from the firing
TIL Many Biblical scholars believe Jesus was not born in 0BC, but rather 4-6BC, even though "BC" was named to be Jesus' birth year. Since Jesus' age at death and date of crucifixion are more easily estimated from historical records, many theologians assume the original calculations were off.
It's fiction to control the masses so what ever made up dates are used don't really matter.
TIL that Long Island is a "terminal moraine", which is the pile of debris that glaciers pushed along as they advanced south during previous ice ages. You can see two set of hills that formed from glacier movement.
TIL In 2007, Warren Buffett bet a hedge-fund manager that the S&P 500 would beat a portfolio of hedge funds. After 10 years, the S&P had returned 85%; the hedge funds, 22%.
TIL that after being ejected from a game, NY Mets manager Bobby Valentine disguised himself with sunglasses and a fake mustache, and made his way back to the dugout. The game's TV announcers spotted him, and MLB fined him for it.
TIL that the US exports more bull semen to Iran than any other country. In 2018 alone, the amount of semen exported from the US was more than the combined total of the next seven other countries exporting semen to Iran.
TIL That in 1762, Benjamin Franklin had a hollow walking stick created that could secretly hold ~1 pint of oil in it. When the head of the stick was pushed down, it would release oil from the bottom. He did this to trick his friends into thinking he had the power to calm waves in troubled waters.
TIL The US Government passed the Stolen Valor Act in 2005. The Act made it illegal to wear or falsely claim to have received any military medal or decoration without authorization, including the Medal of Honor. However, the Act was later ruled unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit Court.
Stolen Valor Act of 2013 - Amends the federal criminal code to rewrite provisions relating to fraudulent claims about military service to subject to a fine, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both an individual who, with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds himself or herself out to be a recipient of: See https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/258 for list
TIL in order to promote Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Ubisoft funded the exhumation, DNA testing, and facial reconstruction of famous 18th century pirate Amaro Pargo
TIL Joaquin Phoenix's older brother, River Phoenix, who starred as a kid in Stand By Me among other movies, died of an overdose while attending a concert with Joaquin on Halloween in L.A. at age 23, in 1993
River took the overdose at the Viper Room, owned by Johnny Depp on October 31, 1993, at age 23. His brother Joaquin was there and called 911. River had quit drugs for a time and was trying to stay off drugs. As with happens to way too many people who are habitual drug users. During rehab the body loses the tolerance it once had, the victim does not realize this and takes the dose they were once used to taking resulting in the overdose.
TIL if you could accelerate continually at just 1g you could travel to the other side of the known universe within your lifetime.
TIL X-Men movie director Bryan Singer banned Comic Books on set because he worried that bringing comics on set might get in the way of the "three-dimensional characters" he was trying to portray on screen.
TIL the programming language 'Python' got its name from the show "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
TIL the programming language 'Python' got its name from the show "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
