Life’s a lot better when you stay curious and open-minded about the world. That’s easier said than done, however. Adult responsibilities, work, studies, chores, and stress all get in the way. But if you have a few minutes to spare, some corners of the internet reward you with newfound knowledge.
To share some of that knowledge with you, we’re showcasing some of the most intriguing and unusual facts shared by members of the ‘Today I Learned’ (TIL) online community this June. Scroll down to expand your mind. Hopefully, these facts will pique your curiosity and inspire you to spend more time reading about topics you never knew you were interested in.
#1
TIL that when his son Xinzhen was abducted by a child trafficker in 1997, Guo Gangtang spent 24 years, his life savings and 10 motorbikes on a search for him across China. They were finally reunited in 2021 and his efforts helped the Chinese authorities find over 100 more abducted children.
Image credits: ShabtaiBenOron
#2
TIL that Ken Allen, an orangutan at the San Diego Zoo, became famous for his many successful escapes. During his escapes, he would peacefully stroll around the zoo looking at other animals. He never acted aggressively toward patrons, but would throw rocks at Otis, another orangutan he “despised”
Image credits: bnrshrnkr
#3
TIL that in 1999, 11-year old Mitchell Schop wrote to his favorite band, Cake, and asked if they would play his Bar Mitzvah. After Schop sang his favorite song of theirs to the band over the phone, Cake agreed and made Schop's party the first stop on their 1999 world tour
Image credits: MrMojoFomo
According to Leon F. Seltzer, PhD, curiosity seems to improve your cognitive functioning. In other words, it helps your mind work more logically and efficiently.
Seltzer explains that being curious can make us more intelligent, “enhancing our critical thinking skills and making us more likely to question assumptions, challenge beliefs, assess evidence, and so make better, more informed decisions.” On top of that, curiosity can also boost your imagination and creativity.
Furthermore, curiosity can also increase your:
- Confidence
- Self-esteem
- Sense of pride
- Purpose
- Life direction
#4
TIL in 1976, Jaime Sin was appointed a Cardinal in the Catholic Church, being formally known as "Cardinal Sin". He would greet guests to his home with "Welcome to the house of Sin".
Image credits: EastSignal
#5
TIL that Australian convicted criminal, gang member and author Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read refused a liver transplant, saying, "I'm 55-years-old; I'm not going to put my name down against some 10-year-old kid."
Image credits: mubukugrappa
#6
TIL the old Danish criteria for common law marriage was that" If anyone has a mistress in his home for three winters and obviously sleeps with her, and she commands lock and key and obviously eats and drinks with him, then she shall be his wife and rightful lady of the house."
Image credits: watchful_tiger
In a recent article, UCLA points out that curiosity tends to wane as you get older. That being said, one type of curiosity—state curiosity—can increase into old age.
“State curiosity is what psychologists call the kind of momentary feeling of curiosity people experience when they are asked about specific topics. Trait curiosity [your general level of curiosity], on the other hand, is a personality trait. Some people, for example, might not be very inquisitive by nature, being content to accept things more or less at face value (trait curiosity), but have a passionate thirst for knowledge in specific topics or hobbies (state curiosity). All people possess varying degrees of both trait and state curiosity.”
Individuals who maintain their curiosity as they age can offset or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The reverse is also true. People who aren’t curious or interested in the world can be at greater risk of dementia.
#7
TIL that, in the first printed attestation of orangutans in western sources, Malays claimed the ape could talk but preferred not to “lest he be compelled to labour”
Image credits: bnrshrnkr
#8
TIL that although intensely private, Joe DiMaggio allowed a children's hospital to use his name and image on condition that they never turn away a child because of inability to pay. The deal was struck with a promise and a handshake.
Image credits: Overall-Register9758
#9
TIL after a woman put $40 into a lottery vending machine with the intention of buying multiple cheaper tickets, "some rude person" bumped into her & caused her to accidentally select a $30 ticket. She was annoyed until she started scratching that ticket & realized she'd won the $10 million jackpot.
Image credits: tyrion2024
The ‘Today I Learned’ group, boasting 41 million members, is one of the largest communities on Reddit. Originally, it was created in late 2008. The premise is simple: you share interesting facts about something that you only recently found out.
These aren’t random opinions or biased posts either. If you want to share something you learned on the TIL sub, you must back up the facts you post with reliable, objective sources. The high bar set by the moderators is one of the reasons why the subreddit continues to be so incredibly successful.
#10
TIL there’s a philosophy that believes humans shouldn’t procreate and should eventually go extinct and it’s called antinatalism
Image credits: AlmostMidnight_
#11
TIL that a sunfish in a Japanese aquarium became so lonely after the aquarium closed to visitors for renovations that it stopped eating. Only after staff placed photos of people’s faces near its tank did the sunfish perk up and start eating again
Image credits: Prior-Student4664
#12
TIL 15-year-old Shyam Lal in India decided to take his spade and dig a pond to quench the thirst of people and cattles. Fellow villagers laughed at him. Lal identified a spot in the forest in and kept digging — for 27 years. The result was a one-acre 15-feet deep pond.
Image credits: SuvenPan
A penny for your thoughts, Pandas. Which of the TIL facts that we’ve featured here today genuinely surprised you? Which ones got you thinking about the topic so much that you actually want to do more research?
On the other hand, which of these facts did you actually know before? What do you do to stay curious about the world, no matter what life throws at you? We’re always happy to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments below.
#13
TIL Humans are not the only species that has discovered agriculture. Ants have been practicing agriculture for at least 50 million years. The domestication of plant, fungus, and animal species by ants is well documented.
Image credits: lnfinity
#14
TIL that Jeremy Clarkson’s mother, Shirley Clarkson, designed and created the very first Paddington Bear toy in the early 1970s, prototypes that she made for Jeremy and his sister later became a licensed product that funded his education and helped launch his TV career
Image credits: dtdowntime
#15
TIL in the 1980s, a woman bought a ring at a car boot sale for £10 & proceeded to wear it regularly under the assumption it was a piece of costume jewelry. However when she had it appraised decades later, it was identified as a real 26-carat diamond ring from the 1800s, which she then sold for £656K
Image credits: tyrion2024
#16
TIL Ireland's population peaked in the census of 1841 with over 8 million people. It never recovered from the long lasting effects of the potato famine. Was at 4 million for half a century. Today, it's at 7.2 million, having not fully recovered almost 2 centuries post famine
Image credits: lemelisk42
#17
TIL at the luxurious French brothel One-Two-Two there were themed rooms. One of the rooms, the Orient Express was a replica of a train car. It had sound effects and shook and bounced like a real train in motion. You could even have an intrusive conductor barge into the room and join in.
Image credits: TheMadhopper
#18
TIL that all diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob and fatal insomnia, have a perfect 100% mortality rate. There are no cases of survival and these diseases are invariably fatal.
Image credits: exophades
#19
TIL People with social anxiety disorder have a different gut microbiome - transplanting their microbiome to mice causes the mice to suffer from increased social fear
Image credits: FissileAlarm
#20
TIL that in 2003 Hideo Kojima designed a Game Boy Advance game with a light sensor built into the cartridge. The player's in-game weapon is charged by taking the game outside and playing it in natural sunlight, and game mechanics change when it's dark out in your area
Image credits: Smaptimania
#21
TIL house cats are considered to be "semi-domesticated"
#22
TIL in 2014 Ben Affleck was banned for life from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas after he was caught on camera counting cards at a high rollers table. He was told by security that he was "too good" and had been deemed an advantage blackjack player.
Image credits: tyrion2024
#23
TIL that after featuring as the "childlike empress" in The Neverending Story, the 11 year old actress began receiving marriage proposals from adult men resulting in her hiatus from acting until she was an adult.
Image credits: loadnurmom
#24
TIL that in 1906, a serial k**ler in Morocco was sentenced to death by immurement (being walled in).
Image credits: a7xfan01
#25
TIL that in 2020, an Oregon man driving a stolen car crashed into a woman driving another stolen car
Image credits: racc15
#26
TIL of the 85 known d***s that interact with grapefruit, 43 can have serious side-effects including sudden death, acute kidney failure, respiratory failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and bone marrow suppression in people with weakened immune systems.
Image credits: tyrion2024
#27
TIL blood lost during a cycle isn’t blood that’s been “stored” over the month long cycle, it’s blood coming from blood vessels in the uterus. As the uterine lining pulls away, ‘tiny’ ruptures/tears are caused in the blood vessels, and heavy cycles are caused by enlarged vessels & hormone imbalance
#28
TIL the first words ever spoken in a feature film were, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” — delivered by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927).
#29
TIL that French used to have and provide mobile military brothels to their soldiers between WW1 and as late as 2003.
Image credits: my4coins
#30
TIL a human brain uses 12 watts to think while, if it could, an AI system doing the same processing could use 2.7 billion watts
Image credits: 49orth
#31
TIL 2055 brown recluse spiders were removed from a house in Kansas. The spiders had four human roommates who had lived in their house for many years and were never bitten, despite frequent encounters with the spiders.
#32
TIL that there is a strategy for winning competitive debates called “spreading”, which involves making as many arguments as possible within a short time so that the opponent is unable to respond to them all. The technique has been described as unfair and as “sounding like a cattle auctioneer”.
Image credits: Vegetable-Orange-965
#33
TIL Alleged spy Mata Hari was a famous exotic dancer who never appeared fully nude onstage. Although she would strip off most of her clothes, her jeweled breastplate would remain. This was because she was self-conscious about her small breasts.
Image credits: Ill_Definition8074
#34
TIL at Animal Kingdom in Disney World balloons aren’t allowed so they created a “balloon daycare” where your balloon is stored and they’ll give you a report card about its day and its activities.
Image credits: MothersMiIk
#35
TIL The original Jungle Gym was originally designed to help children comprehend the 4th dimension as a tesseract by an eccentric British mathematician.
#36
TIL Marottichal a village in India was rife with alcoholism and illicit gambling, but everything changed after one man taught the town to play chess. Miraculously, the game’s popularity flourished while drinking and gambling declined.
#37
TIL. Astronauts left mirrors on the moon for scientists on earth to bounce lasers off.
#38
TIL Spanish entomologist Luis Méndez de Torres was the first to realize, in the late 1500s, the "king" bee was, in fact, a female. But he didn't call it "queen," but "mistress of the swarm."
#39
TIL of the 1997Jarrell, Texas "Dead Man Walking" tornado, a slow-moving F5 twister that sat over a subdivision for three full minutes, subjecting it to 260+ mph winds. It erased everything, killed 27 people, plus hundreds of cattle, and blended their remains together unrecognizably.
#40
TIL Studies show patients suffering from kidney stones often passed the stones while riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
#41
TIL Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered in 1995 by two people: astronomer Alan Hale and amateur stargazer Thomas Bopp. Both immediately alerted the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams to report their discovery. Hale sent an e-mail, while Bopp sent a Western Union telegram.
#42
TIL Galapagos tortoises have been known to k**l the finches that groom them for parasites. The tortoise will suddenly retract its limbs to lay flat, and purposely fall on the bird, k**ling it and consuming it for protein.
#43
TIL that Judaism has a roughly 2500-year-old prayer for using the bathroom in which you thank God for giving you the right number of orifices and not sealing them or making new ones
Image credits: Smaptimania
#44
TIL that Hetty Green, also called the “witch of Wall Street,” was incredibly rich, yet she continued to live in inexpensive lodgings, avoiding any display of wealth and seeking medical treatment for herself at charity clinics. On her death in 1916, Green left an estate of more than $100,000,000.
Image credits: Dystopics_IT
#45
TIL that Tom Selleck was almost cast as Indiana Jones instead of Harrison Ford. He only lost out because CBS wouldn't let him out of his contract for Magnum PI.
#46
TIL Margot Kidder (Lois Lane from the original Superman) had a manic breakdown after the laptop she was using to write her autobiography crashed. She disappeared for four days
Image credits: aprettyp
#47
TIL that the demand for Ozempic is so great that it has boosted Denmark's entire economy
Image credits: SocraticTiger
#48
TIL After British Airways Flight 9 flew through volcanic ash, the Captain announced "We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
#49
TIL that ancient Greek and Roman historians wrote about a species of headless humans with faces in their chest who supposedly populated Libya and Aethopia
Image credits: bnrshrnkr
