Today is a brand new day and before it turns into yet another small and insignificant spot somewhere in a 365-day bender, there’s time to make it worthwhile. So today, we baked you a special treat of a list that features some of the most entertaining facts you probably didn’t know.
Thanks to our dear friends and the powerhouse of Reddit, “Today I Learned,” we have quite a read to scroll through right below. The group’s whopping 26.2 million members prove that too many of us love that sense of discovery, no matter how big or small it be. And often all it takes is one specific fact to pump up your trivia muscle!
After you're done, be sure to check out our previous TIL posts here, here and here.
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TIL 110 years ago Dr Charles Campbell constructed 30 feet high bat roost to fight malaria. Bats that lived in the roost ate the mosquitoes and Mitchell's lake municipality was malaria-free in 4 years.
TIL that the first child protective services organization in the world was created after the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals realized laws protecting animals from abuse were stronger than laws protecting children
First child cruelty case in the UK was prosecuted under animal welfare legislation.
TIL Mexico was the only country to protest the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. To honor that support, there is a square in Vienna named "Mexikoplatz"
TIL about a man who shot a protected saguaro cactus down with his shotgun in 1982. The cactus fell on him, crushing and impaling him to death.
TIL that in 2013, Star Wars was dubbed into Navajo, making it the first major motion picture translated into a Native American language
Depressing it took so long! We need to keep older languages alive. Moana was released in Tokelauan, and there are songs that were never translated into English to encourage natives to keep their language alive.
TIL that the song "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" by the artist Skrillex was observed as a mosquito repellent due to its low-frequency vibrations. The scientists also found that mosquitoes exposed to the song had sex "far less often" than other mosquitos without music.
TIL The British army breaks step when crossing bridges. This is because in 1831 a suspension bridge collapsed from all the soldiers marching in unison.
TIL that the FTC actually recommends against organizations using regular password changing policies as it only encourages users to use simple, easy to remember passwords that they then only alter in predictable ways.
TIL that in China 209 BC two generals were going to be late which was punishable by death. They realized that the punish for rebellion was the same as the one for being late, so they decided to rebel and created an uprising.
They're not general but just low level officer. Their names are Chen Sheng & Wu Guang (surname first). Their revolt was suppressed in just 6 months.
TIL that Enya lives in a castle in Ireland, and when Bo Burnham wanted to include Orinoco Flow in his film, he had to send her a hand written letter
TIL of Lady Lucy Houston, a British philanthropist who, after WWI, recognized the need for a strong Air Force... when the British government refused, she funded development of what became the Spitfire. She passed before WWII, and never saw how much that investment paid off.
TIL that a guy drove 3.25 million miles with his Volvo that he bought in 1966 until his death in 2018
TIL, While alcohol made from apples is called cider, alcohol made from pears is called "Perry"
TIL: President Nixon, wife Pat, and Henry Kissinger took lessons and practiced for months to learn to use chopsticks properly, in preparation for the dinner banquet on his visit to China in 1972
TIL that Filipino churches built during Spain's colonial period used millions of egg whites in the concrete to make it more durable. This is also why Filipino desserts often use lots of egg yolks- many were developed to use up all the extra yolks from construction projects
On the other hand, monasteries used a lot of egg yolk for their manuscripts and had to create recipes with the white, which is why we have meringue, macarons, and other sweets with a lot of egg whites.
TIL James Blunt(singer) developed scurvy in university when he ate only meat for two months 'out of principle' to annoy vegetarian classmates
He added orange juice to his diet to try to combat it and got acid reflux. Balance in diet is important!!!
TIL the sex of alligator hatchlings is based purely on temperature while incubating. At 86F or lower, the babies will all be female; at 93F or higher, they will all be male. The mother can sense these changes in temperature and will alter the nest to maintain an optimum temperature.
TIL The Vatican has its own telescope staffed by priests, and has previously been given awards for the pursuit of scientific research.
TIL that in 1939 an experiment was conducted at the University of Iowa on orphans in which the purpose was to induce stuttering in otherwise normally speaking children. Dubbed the "monster study", it caused lifelong psychological issues in some of the subjects.
TIL David Lucas, a producer of the 1976 rock hit "Don't Fear The Reaper", really did want more cowbell, while band members felt he was crazy. In a 2005 interview, the bassist recalled that the cowbell "really pulled the track together".
TIL of garden hermits, people encouraged to dress as druids and live in caves and grottoes on the estates of rich people effectively as decoration in the 18th century, usually receiving room and board as payment. One such hermit was fired three weeks into a seven year term after being found drinking at a local pub.
TIL that Stalin struggled with depression and summoned renowned Russian psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev to examine him. After the examination Bekhterev said only one word - "paranoiac". He died on the very next day from what most believed was poisoning.
"I have a feeling people don't like me, it's not like I ban them from speaking their minds and send them to gulags to freeze or work to death if I don't like what they say."
TIL A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. It takes Venus longer to rotate once on its axis than to complete one orbit of the Sun. That's 243 Earth days to rotate once, and 225 Earth days to complete one orbit of the Sun.
Pretty sure Mercury is the same. Conversely, a lunar year and a lunar day are identical which is why we always have the same side facing us
Today I learned Charlie Chaplin didn't actually have a mustache, it was a part of his makeup.
Unlike Cesar Romero who did have a mustache that Ben Nye attempted to hide under makeup. (Cesar Romero played the Joker in the original TV Batman series.)
TIL there is a full taxidermed whale in a Swedish museum that was open to the public until a couple was caught making love inside it (1930's)
TIL pepperoni is an American invention. It's similar to the spicy salamis of southern Italy, but it also has elements characteristic of German sausages (smokiness, beef content, and fine grind). In Italian, "peperoni" just means "bell peppers".
In Germany, 'peperoni' is used for something similar to chili peppers. For years, when I read about 'peperoni pizza' I believed it was just a pizza with a whole lot of chili.
TIL ancient Egyptians would give opium to quiet crying babies. This practice was also a popular way to calm babies in the Victorian era, but it sometimes caused infants to starve to death as they were kept in a constant state of narcotism.
This used to be done in my village too. They would give strong poppy tea to crying babies to calm them down. Good as a painkiller but definetly too dangerous for babies since some would die.
I don't know about Egypt, but in some parts of Europe, people would use wild poppy instead of opium poppy, which only has very moderate narcotic effect.
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You always do diaper check, boob, snack bottle, burp, opium. You don't start with the sleepy meds. Duh.
In the US, as late as the 70's, paregoric was given to babies to quiet them when they were colicky or teething. It had opium in it. I know this because my mother says she gave it to all thirteen of us and she bought in the baby section at the drug store.
My mom used whisky for my teeth. She would just rub a little on my gums and said it worked like a charm but I hear people are pretty strongly against that now. Not like I was getting drunk. Just use a tiny bit.
They used to sell something in Australia called Gripe Water, for 'unsettled'. Had heaps of alcohol in it! They didn't stop selling it til the 1990s either!
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My mom gave me codeine when I had a cold and couldn't stop coughing at night. That's the only stuff that really works for me, but it hasn't been OTC for decades and doctors resist giving out prescriptions for it.
During a time when I had almost nightly coughing fits, my doctor prescribed me a cough medicine that contained codeine. All it took was the smallest sip to hit my throat and calmed it right down. I could make a bottle last 6-8 months. He kept renewing it for me until the time his nurse practitioner saw what I was asking for and denied it. I take tiny sips of whisky with honey (little bottle at the liquor store) now instead.
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I was b1tched at - but rubbing my son's gums with a finger soaked in whiskey helped with teething pain. I tried the safe baby teething gels, and all the ice rings - but 13 months of teething made me hit the bottles - tylenol and whiskey fingers.
My mother and grandmother gave all of us whiskey in our bottles. They rubbed it on our gums, too. Mom had thirteen children, Grandma had eight children and 34 grandchildren. All of us were raised on whiskey.
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Can we make this legal again, just for babies who are about to fly on airplanes?
Brandy over a sugar cube was routinely used in airplanes in the 60s. Not too long ago, some entitled person asked loudly, ''Why are all the babies crying...they didn't used to''.
My moms doctor recommended putting kalua in my milk and she listened. maybe its why i'm like this
My brothers and I consumed a lot of whisky in our baby formula. A LOT. Both my mother and grandmother thought it was cure-all for babies.
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Women, who worked in factories in Victorian England, would use gin to make their babies sleep while they worked.
My granddad used to put whiskey in my sister's bottle to calm her down. Mum soon put a stop to that once she found out.
Parenting has gone from killing kids with opiates to now restricting life-saving vaccines. So much for evolution.
My mom gave Stokes Expectorant for a cough in the '40s. For a long time it was on the shelf in drug stores. Then eventually it was one of those products you had to ask and sign for. Then you needed to be half dead and get a prescription as it had opium in it. Worked great and I was never an addict. Then I dated a Swiss whose mom gave him poppy tea during WW II whenever there was an air raid so kids wouldn't cry and make noise.
ahh, look up Paregoric, which until 1970 was available OTC in the US. 4% opium tincture.
When I was a teething infant in the '60s, my mom would rub paregoric onto my gums. It was a golden liquid she obtained via prescription from the pediatrician...and it was derived from opium.
In the Victorian era, so I presume we are referring to Britain, Laudanum not opium was used
TIL that half of all panda births result in twins, however, it is very rare for both cubs to survive as giant pandas almost always abandon a cub if they give birth to more than one
I saw a Youtube video about this! Chinese scientist were trying to keep alive both babies, so they switched them up in regular intervals. The bear mama only had one baby at her at all times, while the other one was in incubator and nursed by caretakers, and then switch so both babies would get mama love and milk.
TIL that the opossum and the possum are not the same animal. The opossum lives in North America and the possum lives in Australia and SE Asia. While they are both marsupials, they belong to different orders. An example of a possum would be the sugar glider, which weighs less than 5 ounces.
TIL that in 1457 golf was banned in Scotland by king James II, because he felt that young men were playing too much golf instead of practicing archery. It remained in banned until 1502, when James IV became a golfer.
But...............HEAR ME OUT! What if they use a golf ball made of metals..........so that when the enemies comes, the can swing the golf to the enemies.
Note: this post originally had 69 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
TIL that I can read censored curse word fluently without even pausing!!!!😂
My favourite bit of censorship in the comments was W**g W**g, the name of a giant panda.
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I recently learned that earwigs, those little insects with pincers, have wings. I saw one unfold theirs and take off. :0
Like we needed another reason to hate those mother effers? UGH
Load More Replies... TIL that it takes 1.1 gallon of water to grow one almond. That's 1900 gallons of water to grow 1 pound. 80% of the worlds almonds are grown in California. Maybe throw some of that water on the wild fires?
And about 30% of honeybees in the US die each year when they ship and use them to pollinate almond crops, which provides zero nectar for them, hence having to be fed sugar syrup. Then the colonies are sent back home with all the diseases and parasites they got in that huge bee Woodstock and spread it back to the reat of the colonies back home. The single greatest bee killer is almond production. Tell that to your vegan friend who won't eat honey while they drink their almond latte.. 😑
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I have pictures, people even commented on the pics (see alligator post). Maybe it's your phone?
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Dear people who works at Bored Panda, would it be so hard for you to add a picture now and then? Now you have no pictures an not information enough to make it interesting. We could rather read Wikipedia.
I had to scroll upwards to check if there were really no pictures - I did not even notice! Maybe that's because I'd rather read text only than be annoyed with unfitting or meaningless pictures always stating "not the actual photo"...
Load More Replies... TIL that I can read censored curse word fluently without even pausing!!!!😂
My favourite bit of censorship in the comments was W**g W**g, the name of a giant panda.
Load More Replies... I recently learned that earwigs, those little insects with pincers, have wings. I saw one unfold theirs and take off. :0
Like we needed another reason to hate those mother effers? UGH
Load More Replies... TIL that it takes 1.1 gallon of water to grow one almond. That's 1900 gallons of water to grow 1 pound. 80% of the worlds almonds are grown in California. Maybe throw some of that water on the wild fires?
And about 30% of honeybees in the US die each year when they ship and use them to pollinate almond crops, which provides zero nectar for them, hence having to be fed sugar syrup. Then the colonies are sent back home with all the diseases and parasites they got in that huge bee Woodstock and spread it back to the reat of the colonies back home. The single greatest bee killer is almond production. Tell that to your vegan friend who won't eat honey while they drink their almond latte.. 😑
Load More Replies... I have pictures, people even commented on the pics (see alligator post). Maybe it's your phone?
Load More Replies... Dear people who works at Bored Panda, would it be so hard for you to add a picture now and then? Now you have no pictures an not information enough to make it interesting. We could rather read Wikipedia.
I had to scroll upwards to check if there were really no pictures - I did not even notice! Maybe that's because I'd rather read text only than be annoyed with unfitting or meaningless pictures always stating "not the actual photo"...
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