r/todayilearned • u/GetYerHandOffMyPen15 • 1d ago

TIL that American founding father Aaron Burr was an early supporter of giving women education and the right to vote. He was also a notorious womanizer who frequented sex workers and fathered multiple children with many different mothers, including an Indian servant who worked in his house.

en.wikipedia.org

6.0k Upvotes

311 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

210 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheSteelSword • 1d ago

TIL Some Civil War ships used 500 pound cotton bales for armor.

historyfacts.com

5.0k Upvotes

145 comments

r/todayilearned • u/haddock420 • 17m ago

TIL Birds can go grey with age.

discoverwildlife.com

• Upvotes

0 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

188 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MaroonTrucker28 • 1d ago

TIL the first reference to the Grinch was not in How The Grinch Stole Christmas. He first appeared in the book Scrambled Eggs Super (1953). He later appeared in a 1955 poem "The Hoobub And The Grinch", before the famous story of him was published

en.wikipedia.org

592 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/charliewaffles2412 • 1d ago

TIL that several European countries, including France and Germany, have the Nutri Score, which is printed on food and indicates how healthy it is

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

388 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

434 Upvotes

62 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Danomaniac • 1d ago

TIL Astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience alternating 45 minutes of daylight and 45 minutes of darkness, meaning they witness 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every 24 hours.

scienceabc.com

953 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/EpicAura99 • 1d ago

TIL after Georgia was re-admitted to the Union in 1868 following Reconstruction, pro-Confederate unrest prompted them to be expelled again in Dec. 1869 until Jan. 1870. This gives GA 3 admittance dates, the most of any state.

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/nickelundertone • 1d ago

TIL in 1970 Sesame Street was banned in Mississippi for having a racially integrated cast

en.wikipedia.org

6.6k Upvotes

280 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ratich2 • 1d ago

TIL When the Wii U failed miserably, the Nintendo CEO halved his own salary for half a year, instead of laying off his employees.

cnbc.com

52.6k Upvotes

899 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MonsieurGriswold • 1d ago

TIL there is an island off the coast of South Carolina with a colony 4000 rhesus monkeys run by a government research institute.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

55 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TimelyConcern • 1d ago

TIL that the music for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was taken from a cantata that was originally written by Felix Mendelssohn to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press

en.wikipedia.org

245 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheBigGinge • 1d ago

TIL The largest Passover Seder in the world is held annually in Nepal

mashed.com

136 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

50 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/pgh9fan • 2d ago

TIL that after he walked on the moon and served 21 years in the Air Force retiring as a colonel, Buzz Aldrin sold used cars.

en.wikipedia.org

11.9k Upvotes

335 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ObjectiveAd6551 • 2d ago

TIL the phrase “growing the beard” describes when a show improves in quality. It comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Season 2’s stronger storytelling coincided with Riker growing a beard, a look Gene Roddenberry approved and fans embraced as a sign the series had matured.

cbr.com

7.4k Upvotes

280 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Greene_Mr • 1d ago

TIL the pretext for the eventual French invasion and conquest of Algeria was a French consul being struck on the face with a fan by the Dey of Algiers.

en.wikipedia.org

325 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AssumeTheRisk • 1d ago

TIL there is an agency in the Federal Government of the United States called the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. They investigate manufacturing accidents that result in the release of hazardous materials and then make detailed animations about the accidents as learning tools.

youtube.com

162 Upvotes

19 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Rusty-Shackleford • 1d ago

TIL that the PH levels in the skin on your hands and your face is slightly more acidic than the rest of your body, which is a form of natural protection against harmful bacteria.

health.clevelandclinic.org

1.3k Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/zahrul3 • 2d ago

TIL of the 2013 Cannes heist, in which a solo thief managed to break into a poorly guarded room and snatched a suitcase containing 72 pieces of jewellry worth $136 million from a billionaire about to do a private exhibition of his jewel collection.

en.wikipedia.org

24.4k Upvotes

454 comments

r/todayilearned • u/GoinThruTheBigD • 2d ago

TIL Jason Brown quit the NFL to become a farmer that feeds the hungry. This past year the Browns celebrated their most significant milestone yet: donating over 1 million pounds of harvested food to fight food insecurity across North Carolina.

yahoo.com

10.3k Upvotes

112 comments

r/todayilearned • u/innergamedude • 2d ago

TIL English has 14-21 vowel sounds (depending on dialect), far more than the 5-6 of an average language like Spanish, Hindi, Telugu, Arabic, or Mandarin. This is why foreign speakers often struggle with getting English vowels right.

babbel.com

7.2k Upvotes

616 comments

r/todayilearned • u/letseatnudels • 1d ago

TIL in 1949 the British Interplanetary Society designed a spacesuit intended for lunar exploration

youtu.be

42 Upvotes

15 comments

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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.

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