As Albert Einstein famously said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” But that’s no reason to stop your education. In fact, that’s all the more reason to keep learning as much as you possibly can!

If you’re dedicated to being a lifelong learner, we’ve got the perfect list for you down below, pandas. We gathered some of the best posts of all time from the Today I Learned subreddit, so you can find out plenty of new fun facts that you’ve probably never heard before. So enjoy scrolling through this wealth of information, and keep reading to find a conversation with Dan Lewis, creator of the popular trivia newsletter Now I Know!

#1

TIL Judith Love Cohen, who helped create the Abort-Guidance System which rescued the Apollo 13 astronauts, went to work on the day she was in labor. She took a printout of a problem she was working on to the hospital. She called her boss and said she finished the problem and gave birth to Jack Black.

Image credits: holyfruits

#2

TIL Hours after being adopted from an animal shelter, 21-pound cat Pudding saved her owner’s life. While suffering a diabetic seizure, Amy Jung’s newly acquired cat pounced his weight on her chest and began swatting her face and biting her nose until she gained consciousness.

Image credits: LazyFlamingosss

#3

TIL that ravens and wolves have formed a mutually beneficial relationship out in the wild. Ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals so that the wolves will then open up the carcass and leave the scraps for the ravens once they’re finished.

Image credits: C**kGoblinReturns

To find out more about why it’s so important to be a lifelong learner, we reached out to Dan Lewis, creator of the popular newsletter Now I Know, which brings fun facts to readers’ inboxes every day.

First, we wanted to know what inspired Dan to start this newsletter. “I’m a digital native who built my first website in the late 1990s, and I’ve always been decent at building online audiences,” he told Bored Panda. “While between jobs a decade or so ago, I consulted with an email newsletter startup – they were looking for help building their subscriber base. And I figured hey, I’ve done this for websites and blogs, how different could email be? But I realized that no, it’s a lot different, and I failed miserably.”

#4

TIL that in 1995, a man received a “check” for $95,000 as junk mail. Jokingly, he deposited it into his account. The “check” met all of the legal criteria for a check and was cashed.

Image credits: EtOHMartini

#5

TIL About a 17 year old kid that was given an old iPhone for free, and using the “barter” section of Craigslist made 14 trades, ending with a Porsche. Along the way he traded for newer phones, computers, motorcycles, and eventually cars.

Image credits: Abe_Froman_SKOC

#6

TIL that a cow escaped from a Polish farm and was spotted months later living with a herd of wild bison.

Image credits: TBTabby

“A few months later, that failure was still bugging me, so I decided to give it another go, this time on my own,” Dan continued. “I’ve always loved random trivia, so I went that route.”

“I started Now I Know in June 2010, sending it to 20 friends/family, and just kept at it, growing it slowly over the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. This Monday’s went to more than 50,000 readers!”

#7

TIL juice company dumped 12,000 tonnes of orange peels on virtually lifeless soil, 16 years later, it turned into a lush forest.

Image credits: BKKxwampnuts

#8

TIL that even though Edward Bannister won 1st prize for painting at the 1876 Philadelphia centennial international exhibition, after discovering Bannister’s identity, the judge wanted to rescind his award because he was black. However this wasn’t possible due to protests from the other competitors.

Image credits: LogicBomb69

#9

TIL Two guys honored their dead friend’s dying wish by using his ashes as fish bait and caught an enormous 180lb Carp in his memory.

Image credits: WhatsATrouserSnake

As far as why we should keep learning our entire lives, Dan says, “I think it’s important to be curious about the world around us and open minded about what we think we know. Learning should be lifelong and fun facts are a great entry point – it keeps you humble and keeps you growing, intellectually.”

#10

TIL about FBI agent Robert Hanssen. He was tasked to find a mole within the FBI after the FBI’s moles in the KGB were caught. Robert Hanssen was the mole and had been working with the KGB since 1979.

Image credits: phileo56

#11

TIL in Rwanda people go to milk bars to socialise and drink milk.

Image credits: Canadairy

#12

TIL: A park bench in Bristol was given an official postal address so doctors could register the homeless as patients.

Image credits: diacewrb

We also wanted to know if the trivia expert had any fun facts that he’s partial to. “My favorite fun fact is one I haven’t learned yet,” Dan shared. “I titled the newsletter ‘Now I Know’ (instead of ‘Now You Know’) for a reason – it’s my effort to learn more and share more.”

“For me, the joy of the fun fact comes from the discovery of something new that I didn’t think possible or realistic,” he added. “I really liked most of the ones I’ve shared before for the same reason!”

#13

TIL US Airways kicked a blind and his dog off a plane in 2013 after the Dog repositioned itself during a two hour delay. They cancelled the flight after passengers disembarked in protest saying the flight attendant responsible be kicked off instead of the man and his service dog.

Image credits: therealpetejm

#14

TIL that during WW1, the MI5 used Girl Guides to deliver secret messages. They used Girl Guides instead of Boy Scouts because they found out that Boy Scouts weren’t efficient enough, boisterous and talkative.

Image credits: sylviette_pancakes

#15

TIL that Fermilab used to clean its particle accelerators with a ferret named Felicia, who would run through the tubes with cleaning supplies attached and be rewarded with hamburger meat.

Image credits: HeyoGuys

And if you’re looking to start learning something new every day, Dan recommends subscribing to Now I Know. “It’s easy,” he says. “Next time you learn something new, if it brings you joy, figure out how you found that out – and do that again, and again, and again.”

#16

TIL that at the age of 17, Steven Spielberg directed a sci-fi film called “Firelight”. The budget was $500, and it was shown at a local cinema, with 500 people coming, and tickets costing a dollar each. However, one person paid $2, so the movie made $1, making it Spielberg’s first commercial success.

Image credits: malalatargaryen

#17

TIL that in 2009 Icelandic engineers accidentally drilled into a magma chamber with temperatures up to 1000C (1832F). Instead of abandoning the well like a previous project in Hawaii, they decided to pump water down and became the most powerful geothermal well ever created.

Image credits: kenwood-breadmaker

#18

TIL The Godfather’s famous cat-in-lap scene was entirely unscripted. A stray cat randomly wandered onto the set, so Coppola grabbed it and put it in Marlin Brando’s lap without a word.

Image credits: foogama

#19

TIL of an Australian diver who befriended a baby shark. For years afterwards, whenever the shark would see him, she would swim up to him and demand cuddles.

Image credits: gasping4meaning

#20

TIL alpacas are being used as bodyguards in some turkey farms, since they instinctively accept the birds into their herd and scare off foxes.

Image credits: Jay-overthinks

#21

TIL that even though Henry Heimlich demonstrated his signature maneuver thousands of times throughout his life he never got the chance to use it in an actual emergency until he was 96 when he saved a woman in his nursing home from choking on a burger.

Image credits: nickburrows8398

#22

TIL the ancient Egyptians developed the first recorded early pregnancy test, whereby a woman would urinate on a bag of wheat or barley and, if the bag started sprouting, it indicated a pregnancy. In 1963, researchers measured the test as being 70% accurate.

Image credits: SojourningCPA

#23

TIL A duet sung by Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson remained unfinished because Mercury walked out of the recording. He couldn’t tolerate Jackson bringing his pet llama into the studio.

Image credits: pufballcat

#24

TIL inventor of the Murphy-Bed, William Lawrence Murphy (1856-1957), created his first hide-away bed as means to convert his one-room apartment into a parlour, specifically to host the company of his future wife. It was considered inappropriate at the time to for a woman to enter a man’s bedroom.

Image credits: SammyLBB

#25

TIL, The Netherlands gives Canada 20,000 tulips every year as a thank you for protecting the Dutch royal family in WW2.

Image credits: Jasian1001

#26

TIL Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He was frustrated with the fact that he had to go and ask his coworkers what data was on their computer so he can add it to his computer which led to him creating an application that became the world wide Web.

Image credits: somnifacientsawyer

#27

TIL, that Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen’s tribute for Elvis, took Freddie Mercury 10 minutes to write while taking a bath.

Image credits: Darkness4923

#28

TIL that in India, there is a species of giant squirrel that have multicoloured fur, with with varying shades of orange, maroon and purple. Their bodies measure 36in from head to tail – double the size of their grey relatives – and they can leap 20ft between trees.

Image credits: Alolan_Teddiursa

#29

TIL – Ben and Jerry’s has a physical graveyard that they retire old flavors to, and you can actually go visit it.

Image credits: Chr0nos1

#30

TIL Tag brothers are a group of 10 men who had been playing the game of tag since 1990, chasing each other around the country, traveling by plane, car etc. As of 2018, the game is still ongoing.

Image credits: Majorpain2006

#31

TIL that Charles D. B. King holds the record for the most fraudulent election in history. In 1927 he was elected President of Liberia with 234,000 votes in a country that only had 15,000 registered voters at the time.

Image credits: ThePainCrafter

#32

TIL In 2012 a British man named Wesley Carrington bought a metal detector and within 20 minutes found gold from the Roman Age worth £100,000.

Image credits: VinumNoctua

#33

TIL that March 12th, 1990, over 60 disability rights activists abandoned their mobility aids and climbed, crawled, and edged up the 83 stone steps of the U.S Capitol, demanding the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which had been stalled in Congress. It was called the ‘Capitol Crawl’.

Image credits: ewokiee

#34

TIL the medals in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were made from metals recovered from recycled cell phones collected since 2017.

Image credits: MelonMuenster

#35

TIL Salvador Dali once conned Yoko Ono into paying $10,000 for a single blade of grass. Yoko had offered to pay that amount for one of his mustache hairs. He substituted the blade of grass because he thought that Yoko Ono was a witch and might use his hair in a spell.

Image credits: Captain_Moseby

#36

TIL Goku from DBZ in Japan is voiced by an 84 year old woman, who holds world records for her long-running voice acting career.

Image credits: succulentknobgoblin

#37

TIL about the Great Green Wall, an effort to plant trees to stop desertification in the Sahara that began in 2007. Ethiopia has planted over 5.5 billion seedling since.

Image credits: learnedoptimist

#38

TIL the King’s doctor Johann Struensee seized power for over a year in 18th century Denmark. He managed to abolish slavery, abolish censorship of the press, and have an affair with the Queen before being ousted and executed in 1772.

Image credits: HoneyGlazedBadger

#39

TIL Richard Simmons would wake up at 4AM to call up to 40 people who are isolated, alone, or needed empathy. Some credited Richard Simmons for saving their lives.

Image credits: KomputerIdiat

#40

TIL Friends Thomas Cook and Joseph Feeney shook hands in 1992, swearing if either one won the Powerball jackpot, they would split the winnings. Well the power of friendship and a handshake has paid off: 28 years later Tom won €22 million and split the winnings with his friend.

Image credits: PawNoetic

#41

TIL in 1998, a 10-year-old girl in Austria was dragged into a car and kidnapped. The case remained unsolved until she knocked on someone’s door in 2006 saying: “I am Natascha Kampusch.” She had just escaped the secret cellar of a local technician that abused her for 8 years.

Image credits: iajzz

#42

TIL that when the Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire the some 200,000 bees that live in the roof were thought to be dead, but in fact they were still alive after the fire.

Image credits: ilikecheems1

#43

TIL that the Mississippi river was once five miles wide and whales swam up it from the gulf of Mexico. The remains of these whales have been found in Michigan.

Image credits: InAFloodplai

#44

TIL the band UB40 is named after Unemployment Benefit, Form 40 – a form issued to people claiming unemployment benefits. The name was suggested by a friend of the band because all the members were unemployed.

Image credits: YourOwnBiggestFan

#45

TIL that England experiences large spikes in power demand during half-time at football games due to widespread use of electric kettles.

Image credits: nitrokitty

#46

TIL of Bessie Coleman, the first African American and Native American female pilot who would only perform if the crowds were desegregated and entered thru the same gates.

Image credits: sundog925

#47

TIL that Mesopotamians figured out that the Earth orbited the sun about 1,700 years before Copernicus and Newton. They also figured out that the moon causes the tides and that the Earth rotates around its axis.

Image credits: I_am_1E27

#48

TIL that anatomically dogs have two arms and two legs – not four legs; the front legs (arms) have wrist joints and are connected to the skeleton by muscle and the back legs have hip joints and knee caps.

Image credits: DesertedAntarctic

#49

TIL Agatha Christie has outsold Stephen King and J.K Rowling combined by about 2 billion books.

Image credits: shallowblue

#50

TIL James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther the barista on “Friends” was originally meant to only appear as an extra; he remained on the show as he was the only actor there who knew how to operate an espresso machine.

Image credits: tomservo88

#51

TIL that in 1997, a 50-pound pumpkin was speared atop a tower at Cornell University, 173 feet in the air. It stayed in place for months. Alumni are still trying to figure out who did it without being noticed — and how.

Image credits: dancingkookaburra

#52

TIL Hippos sleep underwater even though they breathe air. They automatically close their nostrils and surface to breathe every 3-5 minutes. This all happens unconsciously, even in their sleep.

Image credits: Cleverusername531

#53

TIL the self-absorption paradox asserts that the more self-aware we are, the less likely we are to make social mistakes, but the more likely we are to torture ourselves over past mistakes. High self-awareness leads to more psychological distress.

Image credits: SonOfQuora

#54

TIL of the Ovitz family, not only the largest family of dwarfs ever recorded but also the largest family (12 people ranging from a 15-month-old baby to a 58-year-old woman) to enter Auschwitz and survive intact.

Image credits: lighted_is_lit

#55

TIL that Tupac Shakur renamed his publishing company name from “Ghetto Gospel Music” to “Joshua’s Dream” after meeting with 11-year old Joshua Torres with muscular dystrophy who died 45 minutes after Tupac left his bedside.

Image credits: Sno0pyBo0

#56

TIL two high school students found that despite advertising claims that “the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges,” the drink contained almost no trace of vitamin C and one orange juice brand had over three times more. The company were taken to court and fined NZ$217,500.

Image credits: Str33twise84

#57

TIL about a New Jersey history professor who was telling a story to his class about how a ranger saved his life in a canyon at night in Texas in 1940. The ranger had managed to track him down and coincidentally walked in to the classroom right as the professor was telling the story.

Image credits: CanadianW

#58

TIL some people suffer a “weekend migraine” or “let-down headache” on weekends (or other break from a 9-to-5 weekday job) due to a decrease in stress.

Image credits: tense_n_nervous

#59

TIL after a chance encounter, Charles-Michel de l’Épée was taught to sign by the deaf. Believing the deaf should be able to receive the sacraments, he founded a school in 1760 to teach sign language. His public advocacy enabled deaf people to legally defend themselves in court for the first time.

Image credits: Brutal_Deluxe_

#60

TIL A director made a ten hour movie that’s just about paint on a wall drying, lasting for ten hours and seven minutes. The film was created by Charlie Lyne in order to troll the British Board of Film Classification (B.B.F.C.) who were forced to sit through the whole thing.

Image credits: foxmulder2014

#61

TIL research found that 94% of British people said they had conversed about the weather in the past six hours, and 38% said they had in the past 60 minutes. This means at any moment in the UK, a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already done so or are about to do so.

Image credits: JMASTERS_01

#62

TIL That elephants stay cancer free as they have 20 copies of a key tumor-fighting gene; humans have just one.

Image credits: Freak-out-time

#63

TIL that Apples are not ‘true to seed’, so the seeds from any particular variety apple will not grow to be the same variety as the apple tree they came from. E.g. If you planted seeds of Granny Smith it likely will produce a wide variety of different and unknown apple tree types.

Image credits: Alolan_Teddiursa

#64

TIL that the details of the Manhattan Project were so secret that many workers had no idea why they did their jobs. A laundrywoman had a dedicated duty to “hold up an instrument and listen for a clicking noise” without knowing why. It was a Geiger counter testing the radiation levels of uniforms.

Image credits: derstherower

#65

TIL Octopuses are one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet, capable of solving complex puzzles, using tools, escaping captivity, and planning ahead in the future.

Image credits: umartin404

#66

TIL Sony sold its waterproof Walkman in a bottle of water to prove it was really waterproof.

Image credits: Suyrz

#67

TIL In the 1930’s a selling point for TP started by Northern Tissue company was that their toilet paper was “splinter free”.

Image credits: YoMomsHubby

#68

TIL that some hikers and researchers have spotted wild birds swearing. It is believed that birds that escaped from captivity teach other wild birds how to speak and swear in English.

Image credits: AvocadoDemon

#69

TIL in 2018, an electrical engineer on board the Bellingshausen Research station in Antartica stabbed a fellow coworker in the chest multiple times because the colleague had been giving away the endings of books available in the research station’s library.

Image credits: unnaturalorder

#70

TIL of Elouise Cobell (“Yellow Bird Woman”) who founded the first Native American owned bank. As treasurer of the Blackfeet Nation she tried to resolve accounting discrepancies regarding leases on Indian Land which led to a $3.4 Billion dollar class action settlement against the US government.

Image credits: intentsman

#71

TIL NASA’s longest serving female employee since January 1958, Sue Finley, has been an engineer and programmer for space missions since Explorer 1, for missions to the Moon, Sun, all the planets and many other solar system bodies, and recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal.

Image credits: Polar_Roid

#72

TIL that Walter Breuning stopped smoking cigars at age 103 because they became too expensive. At age 108, he began smoking cigars again after receiving a lot of gifts of cigars. He ultimately ended up living to age 114.5 and was the second-last verified surviving man born in the 1800s.

Image credits: [deleted]

#73

TIL that in the 70s, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tried creating its own artificial coral reef by dumping some 2 million used tires into the ocean. It became an environmental disaster, naturally, but also a military training exercise when divers had to retrieve the tires (almost one by one).

Image credits: helmsmanfresh

#74

TIL British Parliament had an official discussion where they condemned the historical inaccuracies of the film U-571 and the rewriting of history to paint the Americans as heroes in an event they never even took part in. They felt it was unfair on the British sailors that lost their lives.

Image credits: MarmiteKorv

#75

TIL that the Ginkgo Tree is unique, not obviously related to any living plant; a “living fossil,”unchanged in 200 million years.

Image credits: FergusCragson

#76

TIL In 1802, Napoleon added a Polish legion to fight off the slave rebellion in Haiti. However, the Polish army joined the Haitian slaves in the fight for independence. Haiti’s first head of state called Polish people “the White Negroes of Europe”, which was then regarded as a great honour.

Image credits: redwhiterosemoon

#77

TIL In 1911 The Rigby family included their cat Tom in their census form. ‘Tom Cat’ was listed as being an 8-year old, married Mouse-Catcher, Soloist and Thief with 16 children. His birthplace was listed as Cheshire and he was described as being ‘speechless’ in the infirmity section of the form.

Image credits: Szabo84

#78

TIL Japanese doctor Tetsu Nakamura devoted his life revitalising deserts in Afghanistan, making forests and wheat farmland and contributing to peace. Nakamura was decorated with the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun and Afghan National Medal.

Image credits: BoyVault

#79

TIL although Wayne’s World (1992) was released after Freddie Mercury died, he got to see the car headbanging scene featuring Bohemian Rhapsody shortly before he passed away on November 24, 1991. He loved it and foresaw how the use of the song would ignite a comeback for Queen in the United States.

Image credits: Str33twise84

#80

TIL early-20th-century actress, Maude Adams, wanted to do a film version of Peter Pan, but was against doing it in black-and-white. She began working with experts on those obstacles, i.e. lack of color film and inadequate lighting. She earned several electric-light patents in the 1930s.

Image credits: 4blockhead

#81

TIL David Bowie considered becoming a Buddhist monk, & studied for a few months in 1967 before a Lama told him he should follow music instead. His ashes were scattered in Bali in accordance with Buddhist rituals.

Image credits: pufballcat

#82

TIL: The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has a reverse osmosis system capable of producing more than 500 tonnes of fresh, drinkable water from sea water per day.

Image credits: anonymous

#83

TIL Swedes have a national weekly eating plan. Thursdays are traditionally pancakes and split pea soup.

Image credits: braden87

#84

TIL that Sea Urchins are called Sea Urchins because Hedgehogs used to be called Urchins until about the 15th century. Sea Urchins are Ocean Hedgehogs.

Image credits: theonewithBacon

#85

TIL the chemical reaction in glow sticks was discovered by Dr. Edwin Chandross in 1962, but he had no idea the “chemiluminescent” objects were popular at music shows until a Vice interview in 2013. “Is that so?” he said. “Maybe my granddaughter will think I’m cool now.”

Image credits: howmuchbanana

#86

TIL that the jumping spider, Nefertiti, was launched to the ISS to observe if it could catch prey in microgravity. It succeeded in catching prey by learning to walk slowly, rather than leaping, as this species usually does. It survived reentry and readjusted to full gravity before its natural death.

Image credits: Blackadder288

#87

TIL of eagle hunters in Mongolia. Known as the Burkitshi, this nomadic tribe hunts with eagles (only female eagles as they are larger and believed to be fiercer). While eagles can live for decades, theirs are captured at the age of four and released after 10 years to live out their life in the wild.

Image credits: WhileFalseRepeat

#88

TIL the big orange fuel tank attached to the space shuttles was originally white, but they stopped painting it to save 600lbs.

Image credits: CareBearOvershare

#89

TIL about the 71 teenage students, who were stationed to protect a South Korean HQ, despite having no experience in war or even firing a gun. The SK army didn’t think the NK army would attack that HQ, but they did. Those students, still in their school uniforms, held back the NK army for 11 hours.

Image credits: hull534

#90

TIL after an earthquake shattered the Colossi of Memnon in Egypt, the damaged statue began to “sing” during sunrise which modern scientists attribute to early morning heat causing dew trapped within the statue’s crack to evaporate creating vibrations that echoed through the desert air.

Image credits: rifletruffles

#91

TIL astronauts need to sleep near air vents or risk carbon dioxide from their own lungs forming a bubble around their head due to weightlessness.

Image credits: motiongfx515

#92

TIL a woman quit her job to search for her border collie who escaped from a hotel room during a thunderstorm while on vacation in Kalispell, Montana. After 57 days of searching and posting hundreds of flyers around town, she finally found ‘Katie’ who was starving, but otherwise OK.

Image credits: LurkmasterGeneral

#93

TIL there is a group of wolves in British Columbia known as “sea wolves” and 90% of their food comes from the sea. They have distinct DNA that sets them apart from interior wolves and they’re entirely dedicated to the sea swimming several miles everyday in search of food.

Image credits: BirdPlan

#94

TIL of Vince Coleman, a train dispatcher who sacrificed his life to save hundreds, warning of a massive boat explosion nearby. The message: “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye, boys.”

Image credits: ComprehensiveAmoeba7

#95

TIL that in 2006, a couple lost for three nights in the San Jacinto Mountains of CA were rescued because they were able to light a signal fire from matches they found in the abandoned camp of a lost hiker who vanished exactly One year before their incident.

Image credits: SkidmarkSteveMD

#96

TIL when Steve Buscemi was 4-years-old he was hit by a bus and managed to survive with a fractured skull. He received a $6,000 settlement from the city that was to be collected from a trust fund when he turned 18. When Buscemi turned 18, he used part of the money to pay for full-time acting classes.

Image credits: Str33twise84

#97

TIL that in 1982, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was rushed to hospital when a fish bone became stuck in her throat, and she ended up having an operation to remove it. Being a keen fisher, she calmly joked when it was done: “The salmon have got their own back”.

Image credits: FredererPower

#98

TIL A bank robber in France made a fictitious, coded document which he claimed as evidence during his trial. While the judge was distracted by the document, Albert Spaggiari jumped out of a window, landing safely on a parked car and escaped on a waiting motorcycle. He was never seen again.

Image credits: efranklin13

#99

Nas listed his then 7-year-old daughter, Destiny Jones, as an executive producer on his fifth studio album Stillmatic to ensure she would always receive royalty checks from the album.

Image credits: trifletruffles

#100

TIL the clearest lake in the world is the Blue Lake located in Nelson, New Zealand. Visibility in the lake is up to 80 metres meaning the water is considered almost as optically clear as distilled water.

Image credits: Pazluz

#101

TIL of Eric Moussambani, who had never seen an olympic sized swimming pool before the 2000 olympics. He recorded the slowest time in 100m freestyle history at 1:52.72, however won his heat as all other competitors false started. He is now a national hero the head swimming coach of Equatorial Guinea.

Image credits: jbomber1

#102

TIL Bruce Lee was the winner of the 1958 Hong Kong Cha-Cha Dancing Championship. He kept a card with 108 different cha-cha dance steps in his wallet and developed new moves which he wrote down in a personal notebook labeled “Cha-Cha Fancy Steps.”

Image credits: trifletruffles

#103

TIL in the anatomy building at Dalian Medical University, where medical student can practice on cadavers, there’s a sign with a quote from a donor that reads “I’d rather let students try something 20 times on me than see them make one mistake on a future patient.”

Image credits: shaka_sulu

#104

TIL that Muhammad Ali went to Iraq in 1990 against the then president George H.W. Bush’s wishes and secured the release of 15 american citizen hostages held in Iraqi prisons, and brought them home.

Image credits: azahran1790

#105

TIL Graça Machel was married to the President of Mozambique until he died in a plane crash, she later married Nelson Mandela while he was President of South Africa. She is the only person in modern history to be First Lady of two different countries.

Image credits: rangatang

#106

TIL a legend goes that during the Thirty Years’ War, a Catholic army wanted to destroy Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany for resisting the Count of Tilly. Tilly declared that if anyone could drink a 3.25 L drink of wine in one go, he would spare the town. The local mayor saved the town that day.

Image credits: spark8000

#107

TIL that the world’s rarest tree, Kaikōmako native to New Zealand, has been rescued from extinction after 40 years of trying to get the very last female tree in the world to fruit again.

Image credits: Thyriel81

#108

TIL that all beaches in Mexico are property of the federal government. There are no privately owned beaches in the whole country, all of them are open to public use.

Image credits: SplittingHares

#109

TIL of Ian Manuel. A man who spent years in isolation after he was condemned to die in prison for a nonhomicide offense at age 13. He won his freedom in 2016 with the help of the woman he attacked. He is now an activist, motivational speaker, and published author.

Image credits: Miso_miso

#110

TIL Switzerland has 7 simultaneous “presidents”, each with equal power. Every year they rotate control of 7 federal depts & who acts as “head of state” (e.g. when dealing with other countries). They come from various parties — right now it’s 2 conservatives, 2 liberals, 2 socialists, and a centrist.

Image credits: howmuchbanana

#111

TIL that tigers are nearly invisible to their prey, who see orange as green. Tigers are orange because mammals can’t produce green fur, and orange was the next best thing.

Image credits: Iwantmorelife

#112

TIL there is a herd of wild zebras in central California that can be seen off of Route 1 near San Simeon.

Image credits: Platographer

#113

TIL I learned the first American soldier to land on the beach durning the invasion of Normandy was shot twice and not only survived, but lived to be 90 years old.

Image credits: xeldesign

#114

TIL Los Angeles is the first major city in the world to synchronize all its traffic lights. Nearly 4,400 lights across 469 miles receive real-time updates about traffic flow to make second-by-second adjustments. The system limits congestion by up to 16% while also dramatically reducing idling time.

Image credits: WhileFalseRepeat

#115

TIL that in his acceptance speech for the 1976 Best Album Grammy, Paul Simon jokingly thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album that year. Stevie Wonder had won Best Album in the previous two years and would go on to win again in 1977 for Songs in the Key of Life.

Image credits: trifletruffles

#116

TIL of Charlie Walker, the first non-government individual to fly into space. After NASA deemed him unqualified and rejected his 1978 application for astronaut, he co-developed a space bound device which required him to accompany it. Walker flew into space three times with the device he co-patented.

Image credits: WhileFalseRepeat

#117

TIL when the UN’s Nordic Battalion was sent to Bosnia in 1993 it disobeyed orders, broke rules of engagement, faked loss of communication to HQ, and became known as one the most trigger-happy peacekeeper units. This enabled them to achieve their mission objective: to protect civilians at all cost.

Image credits: Brutal_Deluxe_