People Are Sharing Uncommon Facts On ‘Today I Learned’, Here Are 40 Of The Most Interesting (New Pics)
You deserve to do something nice for yourselves today, pandas. That might include taking a long, hot bath, doing some relaxing yoga or even exercising your brain by learning something new. And if you don’t have time for a bath or a yoga mat on hand at the moment, why not take ten minutes to pick up some fascinating, fun facts?
We’ve taken another trip to one of our favorite places on the internet, the Today I Learned subreddit, to find out some information that you probably didn’t learn in school but you might still want to know! So enjoy finding out more about history, animals and even our own species, and be sure to upvote the facts that you won’t ever forget!
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TIL about a cat named Room 8 that lived in a public school for 16 years. During his time their he would disappear during the summer and return, like clockwork on the first day of school. He became so well known that poems and songs were sung about him.
In 1968, in a teary farewell, students at Elysian Heights Elementary School bade goodbye to their beloved furry feline friend -- named Room 8, for the room he entered by an open window in 1952. A fixture at the school for 16 years, the celebrity gray-and-white alley cat had posed for countless pictures, including one that was emblazoned on school T-shirts. Room 8, the unofficial school mascot, became the subject of a school mural; a sculpture and several poems etched into the sidewalk in front of the school; a TV documentary called "Big Cats, Little Cats"; and a 1966 illustrated children's book called "Room 8," written by the school principal, Beverly Mason, and teacher Virginia Finley. Royalties from book and T-shirt sales went to the library fund, and a trust fund was set up in Room 8's name at the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital. Students who once decorated his newly dug grave with handpicked flowers have returned to the pet cemetery over the years to say their "hellos."
TIL elderly pedestrians in Singapore get more time to cross the road at traffic lights. By taping their concession card on the crosswalk button, the green man stays lit for up to 13 seconds longer.
TIL Ubisoft offered to share their detailed 3D model of Notre Dame from Assassin's Creed: Unity, some 5,000 hours of research, with the French government reconstruction effort after the fire in 2019.
They offered but it was declined, for a good reason : Notre Dame had already been scanned multiple times by specialists who have much more detailed and technical models of the cathedral. It’s a good gesture by Ubisoft but not really useful.
TIL the Kootenai Indian Tribe of Idaho and Montana harvests millions of dollars of sturgeon caviar a year, but put all the eggs back in the rivers. They are desperately try to save the shrinking white sturgeon population which they believe are “sacred messengers.”
TIL : about the game "Foldit", a puzzle game about protein folding. In 2011, its gamers helped decipher a protein of a HIV-like virus, solving a scientific problem that went unsolved for 15 years in as little as 10 days.
TIL Highway hypnosis, also known as white line fever, is an altered mental state in which a person can drive a car, truck, or other automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected, safe, and correct manner with no recollection of having consciously done so.
TIL that sharks don’t make sounds. Across 400-500 species, no one has ever found an organ even capable of producing sound.
so they do not make that noise...? der-dunt.... der-dunt.... der-dunt.der-dunt.der-dunt..?
TIL that just before Laika went into space, one of the scientists using her for testing brought her home to play with his children. Knowing that she would not survive her journey.
Aww poor pup! They shouldn't have sent her in space, she died 5-7 hours after take off. She died alone and scared :(
Everyone always talks about Laika and demonizes the soviets for sending her....but nobody ever seems to mention Albert the monkey and how NASA sent him to space to die. Albert was sent to space even before Laika was.
Animals used in space science: - September 20, 1951: The US Army sent a mouse named Albert I to an altitude of 63 km (39 miles) on a V-2 rocket. Albert I died during the flight due to a parachute failure. - June 14, 1949: The US Army sent a monkey named Albert II to an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) on a V-2 rocket. The rocket failed and Albert II died on impact. - May 28, 1959: The US sent two monkeys named Able and Miss Baker on a suborbital flight aboard a Jupiter rocket. Both monkeys survived the flight and were recovered safely. - July 2, 1959: The Soviet Union sent two dogs named Belka and Strelka on board Sputnik 5. Both dogs returned safely to Earth after a one-day mission. - March 9, 1961: The Soviet Union sent a dog named Chernushka on board Sputnik 9. Chernushka survived the flight and was recovered safely.
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This honestly breaks me. She was so cute. They shouldn't of just sent her into space. Honestly the whole story is depressing
Why do animals have to suffer for the sake of humans and ‘progress’. This was cruel and unnecessary
It is unnecessary in many cases. We still test cosmetics and household cleaners on living animals when there are completely applicable non-animal alternatives, but if it's cheaper to use animals, then a lot of companies will do just that. Even in medical testing there are opportunities to use alternatives that just don't get used because it's cheaper/faster to use a living animal. These are the areas we *really* need to focus on ending all animal testing. Assorted European countries have outlawed this kind of use. It can be done. We need to encourage the development of additional alternatives while demanding via legislation that alternatives to animal testing *always* be used where possible. In the mean time, buying cruelty-free can help send a clear message to manufacturers that we don't want to see animals hurt for another household product ever again.
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Laika is an interesting story that I have been very involved with for many years. She was reported to have died on the third day of her orbit because of lack of oxygen according to the soviets, but this was not true. She overheated in her cabin a few hours after takeoff and died alone and stressed. She was the only soviet space dog cosmonaut that died. All other (57 or so i believe) were recovered and even lived a healthy enough life to have puppies. Belka and Strelka were the first to survive orbit and their story is very interesting as well. The soviets were fully aware that Laika would not make it. The scientists who made this happen said they felt guilty for their actions and that they did not learn enough to justify the death of the dog. Today it is hard to know how much Laika's sacrifice gave to the space explorations of humanity. I think that it was definitley a cruel end for her, but the scientists shouldn't be punished because they most likely didn't have a choice in the USSR.
It wasn't Laika's sacrifice. A sacrifice is a life given. She didn't give her life, they took it from her.
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Just seeing Laika brings tears to my eyes. She died alone and scared. Nothing will ever justify that.
Imma start an argument real quick: while her death was sad, it also progressed humanity by leaps and bounds. This, I think the death of Laika was justified. I think this is one of the unethical experiments that actually helped in the long run.
It didn't, though. It was so soon after Sputnik I that it was a rush job. They gleaned tons of information from OTHER dogs before Laika that no one talks about. They had no intention of bringing her back and then lied and said she died peacefully on her third day of orbiting, saying she would be humanely euthanized. She actually died hours after launch from overheating. There was no scientific benefit. If there was ANY advancement it was when NASA sent a chimp up and he returned unharmed.
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Thats Fu€king sick, come have fun with the kids and have a few hours of fun with the life you should of had before you die 🤬 poor lil baby
Did they do the same for Komarov? He had specifically requested that his coffin be left open so those in charge who forced him to take off would see the outcome… (parachutes didn't work)
The photo of his open casket is so powerful and you can tell how much his commanding officers hated him in that moment.
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I cried so f*****g hard when I initially read about this, I was devastated for that pup - that had to be an agonizingly horrible death - it makes me sick thinking about it.
This infuriates me. Her life was not expendable. Just basically throwing her away for the sake of our need to go into space is abhorrent.
That is horrible! If they knew she wasn't going to make it in the first place, they shouldn't have sent her in the first place.
Which Laika? The Soviets sent many dogs into space, dogs that were unloved and had been taken off the streets. All were named Laika. All but the last one didn't survive the flight. The last one did survive.
It doesn't make it any better that only ONE of the Laika's didn't survive. Animals shouldn't be getting sent into space. Use humans that volunteer for it that are aware of all the risks and still VERBALLY say okay.
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so sad... so many animals abused for 'human development' -- so wrong
Why would he do that. If I was his child, it would have tour me up! I fall in love with animals in about 15 seconds.!
This one is really upsetting. I dunno man a lot of the time I feel more for animals than I do people.. :/
I think a death row inmate would have been suitable for this, and not a defenseless animal.
This is one of the saddest things I have seen - the same with the sweet Chimp If you are not willing to take that chance And I will clarify - if given a choice - Cancer will be cured You or your Dog The answer is me I can verbalize - I can communicate - and if I am the one - so be it
It is my position that the key principal behind sending living things into space is to bring them back alive. To deliberately send them to space without any provision for bringing them back , in my opinion , unconscionable. It's one thing to try and fail. It's something else not to try.
this is animal abuse, everyone involved should be sent to prison.
Why? It was the standard of that time, not this time Why do people persist in judging history by the standards if today
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Totally CRUEL. Same for the chimpanzee. No say in dying for the sake of science. A human can willingly give up their life for science. No offers?
I love all animals, especially cats and dogs and this is sad to read, but if not for using animals for research, we would not be as evolved as we are, especially in the medical field. Please have an open mind and watch "Something the Lord Made" with Mos Deaf and Alan Rickman. They used dogs for experimental surgery to fix the hearts of "blue babies" at a time when hearts were not operated on. Fascinating story and the leads are terrific. When I saw it, I didn't know Mos Deaf was a rapper, I just thought he was a good actor!
They used many dogs for testing, not just Laika. She is just known ☹️
Someday people are going to look back with horror at the vivisections we currently perform on animals. It's a complex issue, no doubt, and as a disabled person, I'm not going to say I don't benefit, yet it still tears at my heart and feels so very wrong. Dominating cutures used to think people of conquered/developing nations couldn't feel pain or understand complex concepts and used them much like we use the animals currently used in labs (primates [Including great apes], beagles, rats, etc.), who we now know have deep social and emotional lives and minds that understand concepts like math and physics. Look at the recent tik tok video of the orangutan interacting with a human mother and her infant from her cage in a zoo and it's very hard not to see how closely apes relate to us as sister species. Yet we keep her on display for our entertainment. We need to re-examine the way we relate to other species.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sad-story-laika-space-dog-and-her-one-way-trip-orbit-1-180968728/
I don't understand why everyone gets so sad over this. Sure, she was a living being, but is nobody upset of the canaries in coal mines? Or the cosmonauts of Soyuz 11? People (and evidently animals) die as a sacrifice for humanity's progress all the time. Sure, it is sad, but alas sometimes it is needed. Would y'all have preferred Laika to be replaced with an innocent Cosmonaut, aware of everything that is happening? No, as much as you might say "but I love dogs", the life of a dog is weighted less than the life of a man. Laika was a good approximation of what a cosmonaut would have experienced. She had to go. As much as people find it sad, I find it happy. Her death led a new era of exploration. She was sacrificed instead of a person. That was a very smart move.
Yes, I'd rather they send a man there - some kind of murderer or pedophile. At least it would be useful to humanity. That would be more rational than tormenting an animal
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TIL in 2001, Mattel made a vibrating Harry Potter broomstick that led to many questionable Amazon user reviews. They discontinued the toy after adult stores in Times Square started selling them for twice their original retail price.
TIL when Captain Francesco Schettino was asked why he abandoned the sinking Costa Concordia cruise ship in 2012 while the ship’s passengers were either dying or trying to escape, his excuse was that he accidentally fell into a lifeboat. He received 16 years in prison for his role in the incident.
TIL It has been scientifically proven that stroking a cat can lower one's blood pressure.
TIL that three years after winning gold at the 2004 Olympics, wrestler Rulon Gardner and two friends’ plane crashed into Lake Powell Utah. The three men swam an hour to the shore through 44F (7C) degree water to the shore and waited all night without shelter for rescue. All three men survived.
Meanwhile I’m shivering out of my skin because I’m drinking a milkshake with the fan on
TIL that there is a type of octopus, an argonaut, where the male fills its sex organ with sperm, then rips it off and presents it to a female.
TIL about the "Tanganyika-Laughter Epidemic". A student in 1962 in Tanzania started laughing in a school in Kashasha. The laughter quickly spread to hundreds of people, causing schools to close for months. Researchers believe it was caused by stress, social tensions. No official explanation was given.
Apparently these are pretty common. Documented cases from middle ages upto to the latest one that happened in Brazil this year (2023) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_hysteria_cases
TIL that, on 16 November, 1949, students in Ghent (Belgium) stormed the medieval castle, lowered the portcullis and threw fruit from the walls at the police to protest a new tax on beer. The event is still commemorated yearly by the city as the greatest student prank in its history.
TIL that when Johannes Rebmann, the first European to see Mount Kilimanjaro, published his discovery in 1849, it was dismissed as a malaria-induced hallucination because it was believed that snow at this latitude was impossible. It took 12 more years for scholars to accept the mountain's existence.
If the Earth were flat, cats would have knocked everything off by now.
TIL that not only are the mountains on Saturns moon Titan named after mountains and ranges from works J.R.R. Tolkien, but the plains are named after locations from the Dune Universe.
TIL the Black Death contributed greatly to the rise of the British Pub and pub culture. Thanks to the plague, scarcity of labor greatly improved the standard of living for peasants, who in turn spent their extra money on beer.
Ye (the) Olde Fighting C***s pub in the picture is in St Albans in the UK.
TIL. MSG isn’t bad for you and it’s bad reputation stemmed from what’s called the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.
TIL: about Nebraska's "safe haven" law that didn't have an age limit to drop off unwanted babies. A wave of children, many teenagers with behavioral issues, were dropped off. It has since been amended.
That’s both sad and funny and is a pathetic commentary on many levels of our world!
TIL only a slim majority of Americans realize Puerto Ricans are American citizens.
TIL that when the Bible was first translated into Finnish, there was no word for lion since nobody had ever seen one. The translator instead used the word “jalopeura” which means “noble deer”.
TIL elephants are capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror, which is a sign of self-awareness. Elephants were shown a mirror and their reactions were observed. They went through a series of behaviors, including touching their own bodies and inspecting their mouths.
Many animals pass the mirror test. One of them is my cat! It's notoriously difficult to mirror test cats because they don't care for our scientific endeavours and often just ignore the mirror altogether. About a year ago I was doing some stuff in the kitchen and one of my cats accompanied me. He got a bit too annoying, so stuck a sticky paper to his back. Once he realised I put something on his back and that something wasn't easily coming off, no matter what he tried, he jumped to the open kitchen window and stared into the glass of the window which currently had the kitchen wall behind it, so he could see what was on his back. To do this he needs to know, that he can see himself when staring into a mirror and for this he needs to be aware of himself. I was a very proud cat dad that day
TIL birth rates in the U.S. have dropped more than 20% since 2007.
TIL that when Zlatan Ibrahimovic signed for MLS club LA Galaxy, LeBron James sent him one of his Lakers jerseys as a "welcome to LA" gift. Zlatan's response was to sign it and send it back.
I wouldn't expect anything less from Zlatan! A legend sure, yet unlike the others.
TIL of "Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome" where the body doesn't respond to testosterone so they have the genetic makeup of a man while showing the physical traits of a woman.
I have a relative with this. She's very petite and feminine and only found out when periods didn't start in teen years. Sadly this was in the 60's and she wasn't treated very well by doctors and her parents who made her feel like a freak. Years of mental illness followed as a result. Very sad.
TIL that there are at least 5 species of shark living in the Thames estuary (which runs through London), and that one of those species is venomous.
TIL that out of 400-500 species of shark, the Sand Tiger Shark is the only one known to fart.
TIL that the morning after the Titanic sank, a man on a nearby vessel who was unaware of the sinking photographed an iceberg with a red streak he suspected to be paint from a ship. For years the law firm for White Star Line, the Titanic’s owner, had the original displayed in their office.
TIL: In 1880, the average ages of consent in the US were set at 10 or 12 years old in most states, with the exception of Delaware where it was 7.
TIL that the crew of the sinking Daniel J. Morrell believed they were moments from being rescued, only to discover in horror that the lights were from the stern section of their own severed ship, still under power and barreling towards them.
TIL during its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.
TIL Domino's Pizza was unsuccessful in its attempt to expand into Italy, they failed to win over the local Italians as they preferred their local pizzerias.
TIL that the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the continental US occurred in New Madrid, MO, in 1812. It was so violent that the shaking was felt in New York, made church bells ring in South Carolina, and made part of the Mississippi River run backwards.
TIL that in 2002 members of a simulated Mars mission in Utah uncovered an actual dinosaur fossil when on a mock spacewalk.
TIL that Sweden has 267,570 islands, the most of any country in the world.
And it’s part of Scandinavia, which in my mind proves itself as amongst the most functional governments in the world! Dare we call it “socialism?!” God forbid! (Looking entirely at you, USA).
TIL: Castrati were singers who were castrated before puberty to develop a unique voice for singing. They were primarily in church choirs and operas. Italian operas without one would be doomed to fail. The Pope tried to ban them in 1748, but failed as it would drastically reduce church attendance.
"Better to castrate little boys than let women sing in church!" - Vatican logic. The regressive and backwards thinking of the Catholic Church is nothing if not consistent.
TIL Brontosaurus is a valid dinosaur again. As of 2015 it is no longer considered to be the same species as Apatosaurus.
TIL that lower class Germans are stereotyped as giving their children names that sound exotic in German, such as “Kevin.” Prejudice against people with such names is strong enough that the term “Kevinism” was coined to describe it.
TIL in 2012 in Cebu, Philippines, after a 6.9 earthquake struck the city, someone shouted while finding their daughter whose name is "Chona Mae". This was misheard as "Tsunami" and eventually caused a mass panic.
Note: this post originally had 111 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Interesting thanks. I'd prefer if people put more detail to substantiate their claims, e.g. the country, date, time, context, etc.
One thing a lot of people don't realize is that the frequently quoted "stone-age people only worked 20 hours a week to provide for their basic needs" was the conclusion of a VERY shady and lazy anthropology "experiment" in the UK many, many years ago, involving a professor, his students, and truckloads of food and supplies being shipped to their camping site every week.
I have a degree in anthropology and I've never heard that!
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Huh. I never realized we had the most island in the world. Can that really be true…?
Finally, a BP article with new facts that are actually interesting.
Interesting thanks. I'd prefer if people put more detail to substantiate their claims, e.g. the country, date, time, context, etc.
One thing a lot of people don't realize is that the frequently quoted "stone-age people only worked 20 hours a week to provide for their basic needs" was the conclusion of a VERY shady and lazy anthropology "experiment" in the UK many, many years ago, involving a professor, his students, and truckloads of food and supplies being shipped to their camping site every week.
I have a degree in anthropology and I've never heard that!
Load More Replies... Huh. I never realized we had the most island in the world. Can that really be true…?
Finally, a BP article with new facts that are actually interesting.
