Learning something new every day can be surprisingly fun, especially when it’s you who decides what topic to focus on each day. Chances are, you already find yourself delving deeper into the topics you never knew you were interested in (for instance, the Bajau people, considered to be the best free-divers in the world) at times, arguably at least partially thanks to the internet.
It’s true – thanks to the online world, learning has never been easier, and one of the things that illustrates it best is the ‘Today I Learned’ subreddit, brimming with fun facts about any and every topic there is. If you’re curious to see what kind of facts the community focuses on, scroll down to find some of them on the list below, and make sure to upvote the most fascinating things you learned from the community today.
#1
Heath Ledger refused to present the Oscars in 2007 after he and Jake Gyllenhaal were asked to make fun of their "Brokeback Mountain" characters' romance.
Image credits: 9oRo
#2
In 200 CE, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus banned all female gladiatorial combat, reportedly after hearing such lewd jokes directed at women in an athletic contest that he feared the sport bred disrespect for all women.
Image credits: tyrion2024
#3
The loudest shout ever recorded was by a primary school teacher who yelled ‘quiet!’ It was clocked at 121.7 decibels and the record has stood for 30 years.
Image credits: Brendawg324
#4
In world war 2, English soldiers would use passwords that had sounds that the language of the people they where fighting against did not have, so that they could tell if an unidentified person was an enemy soldier tying to infiltrate them by if they said these sounds correctly.
Image credits: Frisk-256
#5
Earth's magnetic field was approximately twice as strong in Roman times as it is now.
Image credits: Simopop
#6
The "S" in "Harry S. Truman" wasn't an abbreviation. The dude's middle name was literally just the letter S.
Image credits: preflex
#7
In the Movie "Scream" (1996) there is a section in the credits saying "No Thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa city school district governing board" Santa Rosa revoked permissions to film there last minute and cost the production 350,000$.
Image credits: Super_Goomba64
#8
During World War II, US comedian Redd Foxx dodged the draft by eating half a bar of soap before his physical, a trick that resulted in heart palpitations.
Image credits: gullydon
#9
US president Benjamin Harrison was widowed while in office in 1892. Four years later, Harrison married his dead wife's niece and had a daughter with her. His adult children who were around 40 years old, were horrified that their father married their cousin and didn't attend the wedding.
Image credits: Fishblaster69
#10
In China, water is typically drunk hot.
Image credits: hewhogotsuspended
#11
Local Cretan resistance in WWII was so great that civilians would attack Axis paratroopers as they were landing with knives, axes, scythes and even their bare hands.
Image credits: CompetitiveNovel8990
#12
During the siege of Leningrad during World War II, 28 scientists chose to die of hunger while protecting the seed vault at the Vavilov Institute rather than eating the seeds.
#13
There was case in US where a person failed to die during electric chair execution and then his lawyers tried to argue that he was not dead but he had been executed and that it was cruel to go through a second time.
Image credits: No-Breadfruit1626
#14
In 1853, linguist and explorer Richard Francis Burton disguised himself as a Muslim and made the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca which is required of all Muslims. He later wrote a book about his experiences.
Image credits: CatPooedInMyShoe
#15
Dictator Muammar Gaddafi had a strange obsession with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He had Libya's most famous composer write her a song called "Black Flower in the White House." A photo album full of pictures of her was also found next to his bed by opposition fighters.
Image credits: PinheadLarry2323
#16
The reason your mouth may feel gross after eating spinach is due to a chemical reaction called “spinach teeth”.
Image credits: rubywizard24
#17
Julius Schmid arrived in NYC as a penniless, partially paralyzed German immigrant. He got a job at a sausage maker where he started selling the leftover animal intestines as condoms. He grew this into a multi-million dollar business eventually being named "the undisputed king of condoms".
#18
The average cost of obtaining a Driver's License in Germany is 3,000€ or $3,300. The total includes fees for: authorities and exams, learning materials, driving lessons and tuition.
#19
During a 6-mo period, 2,055 Brown Recluse spiders were collected in a 19th-century-built home in Lenexa, KS. Estimates show that at least 400 spiders were large enough to cause envenomation. A family of 4 had been living there since 1996 and had never been bit despite seeing them multiple times.
#20
Ivan VI of Russia, who ascended the throne at the age of two months, was overthrown by his cousin Elizabeth Petrovna a year into his reign. He spent the next 20 of his life secretly imprisoned without the guards knowing his true identity, before being killed in an attempted rescue.
#21
Up until the 1980s, all major UK banks had to have their head offices within a 10 minute walk of the Bank of England. This was so that in the event of a financial crisis, the heads of each bank could easily be assembled.
#22
Pirates and buccaneers sometimes engaged in "matelotage", a practice in which male couples would agree to share their incomes and inherit their partner's property in the case of their death.
#23
There’s a secret material called FOGBANK that is used in nuclear warheads. "The material is classified. Its composition is classified. Its use in the weapon is classified, and the process itself is classified.”
Image credits: [deleted]
#24
During WW2 the Nazis spent the modern day equivalent of 100 million usd to make a underground base in Poland which saw little to no use. Soon after building it they lost the war, and it is now one of the largest bat habitats in Europe.
#25
The sound a whip makes when you crack it is caused by a sonic boom created when the tip of a whip moves faster than the speed of sound. The whip was also the first man made object to break the sound barrier.
#26
Spongebob Squarepants is credited for creating wider awareness of Leif Erikson Day outside the Norwegian-American community.
#27
During the rescue of Maersk Alabama Captain Phillips from Somali pirates the $30,000 in cash they obtained from the ship went missing, 2 Seal team six members were investigated but never charged. The money was never recovered.
#28
Near the end of her life, Ada Lovelace had a religious transformation and began to repent the conduct of her life. After confessing something to her husband 3 months before her death, he abandoned her bedside. It is not known what she told him.
Image credits: Jugales
#29
The air force has a program in place that will keep B-52 bombers flying for over a hundred years since they were manufactured.
Image credits: superanth
#30
A 2022 California Supreme Court decision allowed bumble bees to be considered a protected species because they met the state’s legal definition of a “fish”.
Image credits: HauntedHippie
#31
The native language of the volcanic island Manam Motu has no words for cardinal directions (North, East, West, South). Instead, it uses polar coördinates—with words meaning “towards the volcano”, ”towards the sea”, “clockwise around the volcano”, and “counterclockwise around the volcano”.
#32
While leather is edible, largely containing 60–70% water and 30–35% protein, only leathers that are either untanned or vegetable-tanned can be eaten. Leathers tanned by chemicals like in shoes, wallets, and luggage will not be edible.
#33
"...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears was heard by Simon Cowell who knew it would be a hit. He offered the writer, Max Martin an Aston Martin if he would give the song to his boy band, Five. Five initially began writing verses; however, Martin had promised the song to Britney.
#34
Sugar isn’t directly bad for your teeth, but rather it creates the perfect environment for bacteria in your mouth to thrive, and they produce acid as a byproduct which IS bad for your teeth.
#35
A clown saved 300 children during the deadliest avalanche in history. Only 400 people survived out of around 18,000 in the town of Yungay, Peru. The children were attending a circus and a clown led them to higher ground moments before the avalanche destroyed the entire town.
#36
In 2000, a convicted murderer on death row's execution was denied because he was "too fat to hang".
Image credits: MrSilk2042
#37
Although Sweden has the lowest level of people who smoke in Europe (9.3%), it's the only country where noticeably more women smoke than men.
#38
Tom Sawyer author Mark Twain invented the clasps commonly used on women’s bras.
#39
Dana Carvey underwent heart bypass surgery for a blocked coronary artery, but the surgeon operated on the wrong artery. Eventually he won a lawsuit against the hospital and won 7.5 million dollars, all of which was donated to charity.
#40
Millvina Dean was the last and youngest survivor of the Titanic. She was just over 2 months old when the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912. Dean credits her father for her survival. She was one of 706 people — mostly women and children — who survived. Her father was among the 1,517 who died.
#41
2024 is the year the US Dept of Health and Human Services banned hospitals from performing non-consensual breast, pelvic, prostate, and rectal exams for “educational and training purposes” by medical students and practitioners on patients under anesthesia.
#42
A Far Cry film, based on the video game, was released in 2006. Directed by Uwe Boll, it was a major box-office bomb, making only $743,000 against a $30 million budget.
#43
A U.S. Air Force officer, John Stapp, survived a deceleration of 46.2 Gs during a rocket sled experiment in 1954, experiencing a rapid stop from 632 mph to 0 in just 1.4 seconds.
#44
The 14-year-old actress in Kubrick's Lolita was apparently having a real-life "Lolita" experience with a 32-year-old producer during filming.
#45
Catherine O’Hara (Moira from Shitt’s Creek) has reversed internal organs, a condition known as situs inversus.
#46
The cancelation of the US-Mexico Bracero Program indirectly lead to tasteless supermarket tomatoes.
#47
While practicing for the '92 Olympics, the Dream Team lost (62-54) to an assembled squad of the best NCAA players. Head Coach Chuck Daly had limited Jordan's playing time & also made other non-optimal substitions in order to "throw the game" to teach the NBA players that they were not unbeatable.
#48
The phosphorus used in fertilizer for food production is considered a non-renewable and finite resource we will run out of someday.
#49
In Japan you can visit Soineya, a co-sleeping specialty shop. It’s a cafe where you pay for sleeping (literally) or cuddling with a girl you like.
#50
Unicode uses elephants as a baseline comparison for cultural frequency when considering whether to add a new emoji.
#51
A neutrino could pass through a lightyear of lead before it has a 50% chance of hitting a lead atom.
#52
The last Communist leader of East Germany, Egon Krenz, is still alive. He spent 4 years in prison for crimes committed as a high-ranking politician in East Germany. He also still defends the former East Germany, is a Russophile, and believes that the Cold War never ended.
#53
In 2007, Hamburg Mannheimer International (HMI), now part of Munich Re, held a party in Budapest with 20 prostitutes to reward 100 of its best salesmen.
#54
Bismuth, the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol, technically has no stable isotopes - however its most stable and common isotope has a half-life more than a billion times the age of the universe. (Some more facts in the comments).
#55
No film has ever won all four acting awards at the Oscars (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, & Best Supporting Actress) and only three films have ever won three out of the four: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Network (1976), and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
#56
In 2000, three Scottish sisters took out a 1 million pound insurance policy in the event one of them immaculately conceived the second coming of Christ. They paid £100 a year until 2006 when the insurance company canceled the policy.
#57
The torpedoed rms lusitania sank in broad daylight within sight of the coast in just 18 minutes, killing 1197 people.
#58
Rodin, the famed sculptor, didn’t actually sculpt in marble. He made sand models and his assistants, namely Camille Claudel, made the art we love.
#59
In Japan, you can hire a person to apologize on your behalf.
#60
South Asians are genetically predisposed to higher rates of central body obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
#61
While noodles were popularized by Thailand’s government in the 1940s as part of an effort to save rice after a major flood, the first mention of Pad Thai in a cookbook only occurred in the 1960s.
#62
Bess Myerson who was the first Miss America, to be Jewish, in 1945. Reactions to her win were mixed, while Jews hailed her a hero and compared her to Queen Esther, 3 out of the 5 sponsors of Miss America refused to have her represent them. She later became a politician.
#63
Four of the last 7 Illinois Govenors have been jailed.
#64
Aphantasia is a condition affecting 1 to 3% of people. Its mind or imagination blindness. People with Aphantasia cannot visualize anything in the minds.
#65
After the trailer of Grand Theft Auto VI was released, its featured song, Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road", saw a near-37,000% increase in Spotify streams, had almost 250,000 searches on Shazam, and ranked second on the worldwide iTunes chart.
#66
A man sued his own search warrant and won the case in the Supreme Court. Titled Marcus v. Search Warrant, he believed the warrant was too vague and was unable to sue any of the agents as they acted within the law.
#67
Of Buttergate - a 2021 controversy caused by Canadian dairy farmers adding palm oil to cows' diets, resulting in butter that didn't spread at room temperature.
#68
In 2018 three illegally installed vending machines (that required an 8-inch hole to be dug & filled with concrete) were discovered in Long Island to be selling "crack pipes" disguised as pens for $2 each. The machines were originally tampon dispensers that had been ripped out of bathrooms.
#69
Gordon Ramsay robbed the restaurant that he was working in and framed his mentor Marco Pierre White so that they wouldn’t hire him to replace Ramsay.
#70
Levi Hutchins created America's first mechanical alarm clock in 1787 because he wanted to get up at 4am every day. So his device was only set to that desired time and it was another 60 years before Antoine Redier made one that was able to be adjusted to a time other than 4am.
#71
To prevent hardware disease, farmers feed cows magnets to bind any metal they eat in the fields.
#72
The world's first hard drive, the IBM 350, was introduced in 1956. It was leased to companies for $37,600/month (adjusted to 2024), weighed one ton, and held 3.75 MB, about the size of a small PDF file.
#73
About Jamake Highwater, a consultant on Star Trek: Voyager who made a career out of lying about being Native American.
#74
The Panopticon prison design used centrally positioned guards to create the illusion of constant surveillance, ensuring low-cost control over inmates behavior.
#75
A group of American sugar plantation owners with support of the US Government overthrew the last Queen of Hawaii, Queen Liliuokalani to make Hawaii a US Protectorate. Hawaii would later be annexed.
#76
Modern broiler chickens have been bred to get so heavy so quickly it can lead to bone deformities.
#77
A Romanian Orthodox priest and four nuns were jailed after they accidentally killed another nun in 2005 during an exorcism. They mistook her schizophrenia symptoms for demonic possession.
#78
DVD started out as two competing standards by Sony/Phillips and Toshiba/Time Warner. The two ended up unifying into a single project after IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Compaq and Hewlett Packard said they would boycott booth unless they did so.
#79
In 2012, a group of British students edited the Wikpedia article about electric toasters and inserted the false claim that a man named Alan MacMasters invented the toaster in 1893. The fake article was cited by newspapers and other organizations until the hoax was exposed in July 2022.
#80
Over 60 percent of tooth decay involves genetic factors.
#81
A group of Jews came to China around 10th century and lived in the heart area of China, Henan province where Yellow River flows and Chinese originated, till middle 19th century when finally broken by wars, all while maintaining their Jewish identity and traditions and even Hebrew language.
#82
Strongheart, a male German shepherd who was one of the earliest canine movie stars. Originally trained as a police dog, Strongheart served in the German Red Cross during World War I. Tragically he was burnt in an accident with a hot studio light, dying at age 11 on June 24, 1929.
#83
Glenn Hughes, an American singer who was the original "Leatherman" character in the disco group Village People, was interred wearing his leatherman outfit at Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.
#84
Rikers Island, New York City’s largest jail, is located only 422 feet away from the runway of La Guardia Airport.
#85
The G.I. Piano (a.k.a. Victory Vertical) was a piano made by Steinway for the US military. Meant to be used in all kinds of theaters, it was designed to be small enough to be carried on a ship or parachuted from a plane and to be able to cope with the humidity of the South Pacific.
#86
Strawberry Pop-Tarts are one of the most purchased food items at Walmart during hurricane preparation.
#87
Frank Abagnale, the real-life inspiration for Catch Me If You Can, fabricated most of his infamous conman exploits, and much of his story was a hoax.
#88
Seth McFarlane is one of many waiting to be cryopreserved when they die.
#89
Mickey Mantle, Hall of Fame CF, tore his ACL in his rookie year during the 1951 World Series. He went on to play the rest of his 18-year career on a torn ACL.
#90
The Tiger Keelback snake, one of the very few poisonous-venomous snakes in the World.
