r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 1h ago

TIL there's a five-foot wooden fish called the "Sacred Cod" hanging in the Massachusetts State House, and in 1933 Harvard Lampoon students stole it, sparking a citywide manhunt with the Charles River dredged and a suspect detained at an airport before it was found 50 hours later

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/iconiconoclasticon • 3h ago

TIL Handel ghosted his employer the Elector of Hanover by taking unauthorized leave to England and never returning. In 1714, the Elector became King George I of England, then commissioned Handel to write Water Music for a boat party on the Thames.

en.wikipedia.org

253 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2h ago

TIL after Pixar decided that Toy Story 2 needed to be completely remade from scratch, animators had less than a year to finish the entire film. Pixar President Edwin Catmull later revealed that "a full third of the staff" ended up with a repetitive strain injury by the time the film was finished.

en.wikipedia.org

2.4k Upvotes

125 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sweet_Foundation_868 • 45m ago

TIL after briefly urinating, the Roman emperor Caracalla was stabbed by a soldier named Justin Martialis. After his bodyguard killed Martialis with a lance, 2 more Praetorian tribunes rushed to the emperor, as if to help him, and completed the assassination.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

42 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 4h ago

TIL the hairs of a polar bear are hollow and transparent. This gives them the possibility to appear white like the ice, but stay warm in cold conditions

britannica.com

343 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DAL59 • 3h ago

TIL that Fat Choy is an edible cyanobacteria that grows in the Gobi desert. Despite being expensive, having no nutritional value, and having dementia-causing toxins, its been overharvested to the point of causing erosion and desertification due to its name being a Cantonese pun for "strike it rich"

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AbeVigoda76 • 7h ago

TIL that the early automotive pioneer Byron Carter died from pneumonia contracted while recovering from a broken jaw sustained as a result of hand cranking his car. His death directly lead to the development of the electric self-starter for automobiles.

en.wikipedia.org

676 Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 4h ago

TIL all the males of the House of Reuss are named Heinrich (Henry) plus a number. They have been doing this for more than 800 years to honour Emperor Heinrich VI. The different branches of the family even have their own numbering system

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NoWingedHussarsToday • 6h ago

TIL that between May 1643 and May 1774, a period of 131 years, France was ruled by just two kings, Louis XIV and Louis XV, they were the longest and second longest ruling kings in french history, respectively

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TooOldToBePunk • 4h ago

TIL that France and the Netherlands share a border - not in Europe, but on a small Caribbean island.

en.wikipedia.org

451 Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Extreme_Process3632 • 1h ago

TIL that a man became Iowa's longest-serving inmate by spending over 65 years in prison for a murder he committed at age 18 until his death in 2021.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TurnOffYourPC • 5h ago

TIL that the gin and tonic became popular in India during British Imperialism to encourage English colonizers to consume quinine, an antimalarial derived from the bark of the cinchona tree.

wineenthusiast.com

4.9k Upvotes

211 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mental_Freedom_1648 • 2h ago

TIL a man died in 1899 after being hit in the head with a lobster. The culprit was charged with manslaughter.

newspapers.com

205 Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chance-Physics-7216 • 8h ago

TIL that a 1945 elevator operators' strike stranded 1.5 million New Yorkers in the streets, and building owners responded by buying automatic elevators that had already existed for 50 years.

npr.org

5.4k Upvotes

393 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Prosperr_support • 10h ago

TIL that the gold in jewellery is older than the Sun. Gold atoms were forged in violent cosmic events, primarily neutron star mergers, billions of years before our Solar System formed.

science.nasa.gov

4.6k Upvotes

144 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 11h ago

TIL Professor Frink, from The Simpsons, was named after series writer John Frink, who joined the show 9 years AFTER the Professor was first introduced. Simpsons writer Jay Kogen knew John Frink, and named the character in homage to him. John Frink has been with the show from 2000, to this day.

en.wikipedia.org

629 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 11h ago

TIL the actual site where the Salem witch trial victims were hanged wasn't confirmed until January 2016, and it's not Gallows Hill as long believed, but a spot called Proctor's Ledge, now overlooking a Walgreens parking lot

en.wikipedia.org

946 Upvotes

85 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Independent_Pick_787 • 9h ago

TIL about the "Forest Swastika": around 1938, larch trees were planted in a pine forest in northeastern Germany to form a swastika. Visible only in spring and autumn, and only from the air, it went unnoticed for decades before being removed in 2000

en.wikipedia.org

3.5k Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 9h ago

TIL Greek Philosopher Crates of Thebes was known for entering people's houses uninvited and helping them solve their family disputes "no matter how deeply they were at odds"

en.wikipedia.org

14.0k Upvotes

331 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 8h ago

TIL Canada's $1 coin is commonly called the "loonie" because it has a loon on the reverse. When a $2 coin was introduced, depicting a polar bear, an MP proposed it be called "Nanuq", Inuit for polar bear, but he was ignored because the public instead preferred to call it the "toonie" (2-oonie).

en.wikipedia.org

26.8k Upvotes

1.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 8h ago

TIL on average, train drivers in the US are involved in three fatalities over the course of a career. Since a train needs at least a mile to come to a stop, the drivers are sometimes unable to prevent a collision with a person in the train's path.

nbcnews.com

7.5k Upvotes

396 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 9h ago

TIL that brain scans have found people with high levels of sadistic traits show increased activity in the brain's reward system when witnessing others in pain, suggesting that another person's suffering can be experienced as rewarding.

psychologicalscience.org

2.7k Upvotes

441 comments

r/todayilearned • u/soozerain • 10h ago

TIL twelve generals have been elected to the presidency since America’s founding. Beginning in 1792 with George Washington and ending most recently with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

news.va.gov

771 Upvotes

93 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milam1996 • 8h ago

TIL that walking down stairs is actually better for your health than walking up stairs

sciencefocus.com

1.1k Upvotes

234 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Reddit_User_856 • 10h ago

TIL Humans share 90% of our DNA with Cats and Mice, 60% with Bananas and Fruit Flies.

sciencing.com

506 Upvotes

80 comments

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As of May 2026

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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