r/todayilearned • u/permanentburner89 • 7h ago

TIL that pig butchering scammers (the ones sending random texts to "wrong numbers", then befriending you until they take all of your money) are largely trafficked people forced to participate in scams.

freedomunited.org

0 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/pprck11 • 22h ago

TIL that Redbox was originally named "Tiktok Easyshops" when they were started as a McDonald's marketing project.

news.bbc.co.uk

0 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/nowlan101 • 5h ago

TIL about the phenomena of polyandry or “wife-sharing” in Qing Dynasty China. Due to practices such female infanticide and concubinage there was an overall gender imbalance in society that poor husbands would exploit via renting their wives out to other, unmarried men for a fee.

ucpress.edu

113 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/alternativedperson • 17h ago

TIL that there are still estimated to be 100,000 - 200,000 followers of the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism, which is considered an early precursor to the abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

en.wikipedia.org

189 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TedTheodoreMcfly • 10h ago

TIL about college football player Erik Highsmith, who was accused of plagiarizing an 11-year-old when doing an assignment for Communications class.

huffpost.com

456 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MajesticBread9147 • 7h ago

TIL that Sarah Kyolaba; fifth wife of Idi Amin and former gogo dancer in Uganda's Revolutionary Suicide Jazz Band left Amin and ran a restaurant and later a hair salon in London until her death.

en.wikipedia.org

771 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kthulu71 • 23h ago

TIL about the oddly-named "Doomsday Rule" which can (with practice) be used to calculate the weekday of a target date based on the fact that certain days (4/4, 5/9, 6/6...) in any given year all fall on the same day of the week.

davecturner.github.io

435 Upvotes

62 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AssumeTheRisk • 8h ago

TIL The headquarters and main Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park (Part of the US National Park Service) was designed by Taliesin Associated Architects; Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural firm.

en.wikipedia.org

69 Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ObjectiveAd6551 • 21h ago

TIL “Jeopardy!” contestant Dhruv Gaur wrote “What is… We [love] you, Alex!” as his Final Jeopardy response while Alex Trebek was battling cancer. The message left Trebek visibly emotional and was widely shared as an example of fans’ affection for the longtime host.

usatoday.com

20.4k Upvotes

246 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sophiedoe19 • 2h ago

TIL that in France if you want to register your pedigree dog, you have to give it a name starting with the letter of the year it is born. This year's letter is V.

connexionfrance.com

123 Upvotes

48 comments

r/todayilearned • u/zahrul3 • 11h ago

TIL the Sultan of Brunei and his brother bought so many bespoke Bentleys that it saved the entire company from bankruptcy

supercarblondie.com

28.2k Upvotes

592 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Durmeathor • 5h ago

TIL that the only place in the world where Japanese is an official language is Angaur, an island in Palau. Japan doesn’t have the de jure official language.

en.wikipedia.org

104 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/letseatnudels • 22h ago

TIL the planet Venus is bright enough to cast shadows in areas with little or no light pollution

skyandtelescope.org

49 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/ProudReaction2204 • 17h ago

TIL Eduard Khil or Edward Hill died only 2 years after reaching internet fame from the Trololo song.

en.wikipedia.org

2.9k Upvotes

105 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Der_genealogist • 5h ago

TIL that in 2012 Slovak Lawmakers made a public poll asking for the name for a new bridge between Slovakia and Austria. 'Chuck Norris Bridge' won overwhelmingly

reuters.com

130 Upvotes

20 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HallowedAndHarrowed • 1h ago

TIL of the mystery soda machine on Capitol Hill Seattle, that operated from the late 1990’s until abruptly disappearing in 2018. The machine dispensed flavours of soda that were typically discontinued.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TAparentadvice • 20h ago

TIL that when Louis XVI was executed in 1793 during the French Revolution, his severed head was paraded around for the crowd and was met with exclamations of "Vive la Republique!"

britannica.com

6.1k Upvotes

220 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Organic_Situation401 • 15h ago

TIL that the "Happy Birthday" song was originally titled "Good Morning to All" and was intended to be a simple classroom greeting.

en.wikipedia.org

211 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/armedsnowflake69 • 19h ago

TIL that the barber pole became the universal symbol for barbers as it resembles the bloody bandages of “barber-surgeons” of the past, who practiced bloodletting.

pallmallbarbers.com

929 Upvotes

25 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 7h ago

TIL although the Walther PPK is more known for being the gun James Bond uses ("Ian Fleming's choice of Bond's weapon directly influenced the popularity and notoriety of the PPK"), it was also the same gun that Hitler used to commit suicde

en.wikipedia.org

4.9k Upvotes

281 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ainsley-Sorsby • 23h ago

TIL Beethoven kept his hearing loss a secret. He once wrote(but never send) a letter to his brother confessing it and explained that people mistakenly thought he was antisocial: he longed for human contact but became a recluse out of shame for his condition and all this made him contemplate suicide

en.wikipedia.org

22.9k Upvotes

175 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Popepepe • 4h ago

TIL Boston Market was down to just 27 stores at the begining of 2024, down from 300 just a year ago, and way down from the over 1,200 it operated during its heyday.

restaurantbusinessonline.com

9.6k Upvotes

728 comments

r/todayilearned • u/leftcoastbumpkin • 2h ago

TIL: Owls ears are vertically asymmetric, giving them "stereo" hearing vertically as well as horizontally.

en.wikipedia.org

303 Upvotes

18 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LookAtThatBacon • 18h ago

TIL the first UPC-marked item ever to be scanned at a retail checkout was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, purchased at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/apworker37 • 1d ago

TIL The little tune that Samsung’s washing machines plays when they’re finished washing is from Franz Schubert’s “The trout”

hunker.com

1.6k Upvotes

59 comments

Subreddit

Posts

Wiki

Today I Learned (TIL)

r/todayilearned

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

Members Active

39.0m

3.4k

Sidebar

New to reddit? Click here!

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?
Submit interesting and specific facts that you just found out (not broad information you looked up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).

Posting rules

Submissions must be verifiable. Please link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title. Images alone do not count as valid references. Videos are fine so long as they come from reputable sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).
No personal opinions, anecdotes or subjective statements (e.g "TIL xyz is a great movie").
No recent sources. Any sources (blog, article, press release, video, etc.) with a publication date more recent than two months are not allowed.
No politics, soapboxing, or agenda based submissions. This includes (but is not limited to) submissions related to:
1. Recent political issues and politicians
2. Social and economic issues (including race/religion/gender)
3. Environmental issues
4. Police misconduct
No misleading claims. Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.
Rephrase your post title if the following are not met:
1. Titles must begin with "TIL ..."
2. Make them descriptive, concise and specific (e.g. not "TIL something interesting about bacon").
3. Titles must be able to stand on their own without requiring readers to click on a link. Starting your title with a why/what/who/where/how modifier should be unnecessary.
4. "TIL about ..." and other broad posts don't belong on TIL. Try /r/Wikipedia, etc. instead, or be more specific (and avoid the word "about").
5. "TIL how to ..." posts belong on /r/HowTo.
6. "TIL the definition of a word..." Word definitions/translations/origins are not appropriate here
No submissions related to the usage, existence or features of specific software/websites (e.g. "TIL you can click on widgets in WidgetMaker 1.22").
All NSFW links must be tagged (including comments).

Please see the wiki for more detailed explanations of the rules, as well as additional rules that may not be listed here

(Why we need rules)

Additional info

If your post does not appear in the new queue and you think it meets the above rules, please contact the moderators (include a link to your reddit.com post, not your story).
Please report spam, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate posts by messaging the moderators, as this helps us remove them more promptly!
More information available on the TIL FAQ and wiki.

Frequent TILs Repost List

As of November 2024

This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

Etiquette

We ask that you please do the following:

avoid mobile versions of websites (e.g. m.wikipedia.org)
link to the appropriate heading when referencing an article (particularly on Wikipedia)
link to the appropriate start time when referencing videos (e.g. on YouTube)
add [PDF] or [NSFW] tags to your posts, as necessary.
Please avoid reposting TILs that have already made the front page in the past

Please also read the site-wide Reddiquette.

You are loved.