Article created by: Indrė Lukošiūtė
With unlimited access to the digital world at our fingertips, it’s virtually impossible to avoid learning new information every day. And why should we? We're well aware of the evidence that discovering something new is an incredible way to improve our life. From stretching our thinking in different directions to keeping our minds sharp, exercising our brains lets us make sense of ourselves and our surroundings.
But if you feel that the amount of information floating around makes it hard to know where to start, then you’re in luck. There’s an impressive corner on Reddit aptly titled 'Today I Learned' where people do the heavy lifting and scour the internet for the most fascinating and captivating facts.
TIL about the Horse, Sergeant Reckless. A Horse who served with the marines in Korea. She was able to haul ammunition by herself without a handler, would seek a bunker or lay down when under fire and received two purple hearts as well as other medals for her service in the Korean war
TIL A turkish mother that read lecture notes for four years to her blind daughter in law school, has been awarded an honorary degree with the daughter
TIL in 1908, the NYT reported a story on a dog that would push kids into the Seine in order to earn beefsteak treats for “rescuing” them
TIL There's 3,200-Year-Old Egyptian Tablet Records Excuses for Why People Missed Work
TIL The Wright Brothers only flew together on the same flight one time, a six-minute flight on May 25th, 1910. They promised their father, Milton, they would never fly together to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their flight experiments
TIL that 1996's movie "Twister" was rated PG-13 for "intense depiction of very bad weather"
TIL that "Old Book Smell" is caused by lignin — a compound in wood-based paper — when it breaks down over time, it emits a faint vanilla scent
TIL that Alice Munro, co-founder of a bookstore with her then-husband Jim, started writing after reading some of the store's stock and thinking "I can write better books than this." In 2013, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature
TIL Captain Robert Campbell whilst a prisoner of the Germans in WW1 asked the Kaiser to visit his dying mother in England. Surprisingly he was given permission, provided he returned to prison afterwards. He did
TIL that by letting a wolf population recover, traffic collisions caused by deer are reduced by nearly 25%; the reduction is not based as much on the decimation of the deer population but on the “landscape of fear” created by the wolves
TIL that the new Rolls-Royce Ghost soundproofing was so overengineered that occupants in the car found the near-total silence disorienting, and some felt sick. Acoustic engineers had to go back and work on "harmonizing" various sounds in the car to add a continuous soft whisper
TIL That the hair style Princess Leia wears in Star Wars, was inspired by women of the Mexican Revolution, most notably, guerrilla fighter Clara de la Rocha
TIL in 2011, a 29-year-old Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw way beyond his balance. In a bender that lasted four-and-half months, he managed to spend around $1.6 million of the bank’s money
TIL about Jean Boulet who in 1972 set the world record for the highest altitude reached in a helicopter, 40,280ft. During descent his engines failed, and he landed the helicopter without power, setting another record in the process for the highest unpowered helicopter landing
TIL every year at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the 1958 special 'Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas' is screened on Sweden's main channel. Swedes are so compelled by the cartoon that last year during the program, cell data usage fell 28% and calls to emergency services dropped 16%
TIL when you see actors smoking cigarettes in movies, they’re often smoking “Herbal Cigarettes” which contain other plants like lettuce or tea leaves instead of tobacco
TIL when one adventurer drove a Jeep Wrangler to the world record altitude of 6,646 m, he left a sign saying "Jeep Parking Only: All others don't make it up here anyway.". The next record breakers, who had a Suzuki Samurai and climbed up to 6,688 m on the same volcano, removed that sign
TIL that Toyota is headquartered in the city of Toyota, Japan and was founded there, but is not named after the city. In fact, the city (originally called Koromo) renamed itself after the company in 1959, because Toyota had become so famous
TIL: The Coconut Monk was a pacifist mystic who founded the Coconut Religion in Vietnam. He lived on an island, meditated in a palm tree for hours every day, had a cat and mouse as his companions, made shards of bombs into a gong, and went to prison for his opposition to the Vietnam War
TIL in 2013, JCPenney sold a stainless steel tea kettle that attracted controversy due to its perceived resemblance to Adolf Hitler
TIL 12% of the world's total languages are found in Papua New Guinea, which has over 820 indigenous languages. There are more languages on this island than in any other country
TIL in 2000, an art exhibition in Denmark featured ten functional blenders containing live goldfish. Visitors were given the option of pressing the “on” button. At least one visitor did, killing two goldfish. This led to the museum director being charged with and, later, acquitted of animal cruelty
TIL that one if the original ingredients for a Milkshake was Whiskey
TIL that Hans Zimmer deliberately used a broken piano for the score of Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" to make it sound like something you would hear in a pub
TIL that Daniel Inouye, who served 50 years in the U.S. Senate, destroyed three German machine gun nests in a single assault in the WWII Italian Campaign. The third nest was destroyed after Inouye grabbed a live grenade from his severed right hand and threw it through the firing slit with his left
TIL Mini pigs aka Teacup pigs are a hoax. They are just potbellied pigs that have been underfed to stunt their growth and will eventually grow to weigh 100-150 pounds
TIL about Jon Lech Johansen, a self-trained software engineer who created software that decoded DVD copy protection. Johansen defended himself against computer hacking charges, arguing he didn't access anyone else's information: he owned the DVDs. He was acquitted in 2003
TIL about the Financial Modeling World Cup, which is essentially the World Cup for Competitive excel users. Participants solve real-life case studies by building financial models in Microsoft Excel. $25,000 prize fund
TIL that January is the first month of the Gregorian calendar because it is named after the roman god of all beginnings, Janus
TIL that after 5 Tamil chiefs defeated the Sri Lankan king Valagamba, one of them became king but was eventually slain by another, who also became king before being slain by another, and so on until only one remained, then Valagamba returned, slew the last one and took back his throne
TIL it took an Iowa man named Otto Frederick Rohwedder some 16 years to perfect and sell the first bread-slicing machine. A prototype made in 1912 was destroyed in a fire, and he didn't sell his first slicing machine until 1928. Within 5 years, 80% of bread sold in the U.S. was pre-sliced
TIL that one of the earliest recorded variations of classic dad phrase "Women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" is found in a speech from 102 B.C. by Roman Censor Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus, in a speech that would be repeated by Caesar Augustus nearly a century later
TIL that the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to the three men who invented the blue LED. Until their discovery in the 90s, white LED lights couldn't be produced
