The ‘Today I Learned’ subreddit, otherwise known as TIL, brings together millions of curious people who enjoy sharing things they’ve recently discovered. From surprising historical tidbits to fascinating facts about science and nature, this community is a space where learning something new is part of the daily routine.

If you’re a regular at Bored Panda, you know how much we love bringing you these fun pieces of trivia. Keep scrolling to see what caught people’s attention this time, and don’t forget to upvote anything that piques your interest.

#1

In an early version of his dictionary, Noah Webster defined “cat” with the entry: “The domestic cat needs no description. It is a deceitful animal, and when enraged, extremely spiteful.”

Image credits: mike_pants

#2

Princess Liu Chuyu of the song dynasty complained to her brother that it wasn’t fair that he had concubines while she only had a husband. He agreed and gave her a harem of 30 men.

Image credits: LyricalWillow

#3

In 2015, a Louisiana man was arrested for drunkenly riding a horse on a highway. When detained, he said, “The horse knows the way home” and the sheriff concluded it did not constitute DUI.

Image credits: moonlightlovette

#4

A Spanish guy skipped work for 6 years while still being paid and was only discovered when he was going to be recognised for his hard work.

Image credits: Lucky_Duckling404

#5

When Roman emperor Nero’s wife died, he found a boy named Sporus, a boy who resembled her, had his testicles removed and had him appear in public as his wife.

Image credits: Yolo0o

#6

The CIA used songs like Hit Me Baby One More time and Bye Bye Bye as part of their torture methods.

Image credits: Salacious_Wisdom

#7

In 2010, a 16-year-old Canadian discovered that his two parents were actually not Canadian, but KGB spies living under fake names Donald and Tracey.

Image credits: sanandrios

#8

In 2018, an American half-pipe skier qualified for the Olympics despite minimal experience. Olympic requirements stated that an athlete needed to place in the top 30 at multiple events. She simply sought out events with fewer than 30 participants, showed up, and skied down without falling.

Image credits: ctdca

#9

Hugh Laurie shot his audition tape for House from a bathroom in Namibia because that was the only room with enough light.

Image credits: mankls3

#10

A 12 year old boy enlisted to fight in WWI after lying about his age and fought in the Battle of the Somme at 13 before his mother revealed his true age and brought him home.

Image credits: Kurma-the-Turtle

#11

There is a burger shop in Memphis, TN that is using 100+ year old grease to fry their hamburgers.

Image credits: Cliff_In_A_Car

#12

TIL of Earl of Oxford. Who farted in front of Queen Elizabeth the First. He was so ashamed that he left the country for seven years.

#13

While Michelangelo was painting the Last Judgement, Papal MC Biagio de Cesana spied on his work. And complained that it was not worthy of the Sistine Chapel. In response Michelangelo painted Biagio into the fresco, as the depiction of Minos being dragged to Hell with a snake biting his p*nis.

Image credits: LiveFree_OrDie603

#14

Until recently, steel used for scientific and medical purposes had to be sourced from sunken battleships as any steel produced after 1945 was contaminated with radiation.

Image credits: islandradio

#15

Disney once sued three day care centers in Florida for unauthorized use of their characters (5 foot high likenesses on murals on the buildings) who had to remove them. Universal in turn let the centers use Scooby Doo, Flintstones & other of their Hanna-Barbera characters.

Image credits: hazarddoll

#16

In 2005, a guy named Doug Heckman read the EULA before he installed some PC software. The agreement included a clause offering ‘financial compensation’ to licensees who actually read the license agreement. He emailed the company, referred to the clause and the company sent him a check for $1,000.

Image credits: Pinky_Glimmers

#17

In 2018, Samsung had a historic “Fat-Finger” error where it accidentally gave every employee $9 million worth of shares in the company. The total amount distributed was $100billion more than 30x their market cap. Within 37minutes, 16 employees sold and the stock tanked 11%.

Image credits: Flares117

#18

Jamie Hyneman was an early competitor in Robot Wars (where people design robots that fight each other), but his robot Blendo was deemed too dangerous for competition.

#19

An extra on the set of “Transformers 3” was left brain damaged after she was struck with a piece of metal. After the accident, a portion of her skull was removed and she now endures memory loss, seizures, and is blind in one eye. She was awarded an $18.5 million settlement.

#20

Because of her mental illness history & how she presented early on, a woman catatonic for 20 yrs wasn’t tested for an autoimmune disease until a doctor who was there when she was first admitted in 2000, came across her again in 2020. This led to her lupus diagnosis & treatment which woke her up.

#21

In 1983 a 23 year old UK woman died after eating what is still considered the largest meal ever consumed. She ate 19 lbs of food in about 4 hours.

Image credits: creamy_cheeks

#22

A woman became addicted to bee stings. It started as an occasional sting to relieve pain from arthritis, but it “spiraled into a full-blown addiction” at 15 stings a day and about 50,000 times total since she started.

Image credits: tyrion2024

#23

The most divorced person ever of monogamous marriages was a baptist minister. He had married 31 times, mostly to teenagers, because he just “spoke their language” and ONLY five marriages end by the death of the spouse.

Image credits: Trextrev

#24

Sir Ian McKellen came out accidentally, before he’d told his family, during a BBC radio debate on the anti-homosexuality Section 28 legislation.

#25

Abraham Lincoln founded the US Secret Service hours before being assassinated.

#26

Sony sold its waterproof Walkmans in a bottle of water to prove it was really water proof!

Image credits: Gen1ss

#27

In the 1980s Alyssa Milano befriended Ryan White(A Boy Ostracized For Having Aids) who was a fan of her works.She went on to appear on The Phil Donahue Show alongside Milano to kiss him on the cheek to show that she could not contract the disease.

Image credits: littlesweetiebabe

#28

In the 1870s William Shanks spent 15 years of his life calculating pi to 707 places by hand. However, the last few years were wasted as he made a mistake after the 527th digit.

Image credits: doopityWoop22

#29

Turtles and tortoises have nerve endings in the shells. They can feel you touch their shells as well as pain when something hurts their shell.

#30

From 1988 to 2016, the maker of Sriracha sauce, Huy Fong Foods, sourced all their peppers from a single supplier based solely on a verbal agreement, sealed with a nod and a handshake, not contracts or lawyers.

Image credits: gixk

#31

The human body can naturally settle into a sleep-wake cycle of up to 50 hours, when there’s no day/night cycle to observe. In 1962 geologist Michel Siffre entered a darkened cave, where he planned to remain for two months tracking time assuming 1 sleep equals one day, but he was off by 2 weeks.

Image credits: Xenial81

#32

In a double-blind test, professional violinists preferred the sound of a modern violin over multi-million-dollar Stradivarius violins.

#33

A 13yo allergic to cheese died after a piece of cheese was thrown at him by a classmate.

Image credits: AdJealous7123

#34

On James Cameron’s 3rd dive to the Titanic, he & his pilot had “a near-death experience”. They encountered a sandstorm on the ocean floor & became temporarily stuck there with low power supply & few batteries. It took them 3 attempts from the bottom to rise above 25 meters & surface 5 hrs later.

Image credits: tyrion2024

#35

In 2009 Nine women were rescued from what they thought was a Big Brother reality show house but turned out to be a criminal organization.

Image credits: NaughtyySaphiree_Sun

#36

In the mid-1800s, a snail spent nearly four years glued to a specimen card in the British Museum before scientists realized it was still alive.

#37

The bodies of Tibetan Monks who die in deep meditation do not show the normal signs of death and do not decompose until sometimes weeks after death. This is called Tukdam.

#38

In 1907, a performer named “Sober Sue” appeared onstage. Theater offered $100 to anyone who could make Sober Sue laugh. People from the audience, professional comedians, all tried, but failed. Later it was found it was impossible for her to laugh because her facial muscles were paralyzed.

#39

Isaac Newton was named warden of the British Royal Mint, an honorary title with no actual duties. However, Newton took it seriously and would visit sketchy bars in disguise to investigate criminals. This resulted in 28 counterfeiting convictions!

Image credits: Blammyyy

#40

1 in 8 adults in the US has taken Ozempic or another GLP-1 drug.

#41

While sailing from Tahiti to San Diego, Tami Oldham Ashford & her fiancé’s boat temporarily capsized when they got caught in a hurricane. Tami got knocked out & woke up 27 hours later with her fiancé missing. Over the next 41 days, she used a sextant & a watch to navigate 1.5K miles to Hawaii.

#42

Between 1974 and 1990, North Korea tried to dig 4 tunnels under the Demilitarized Zone and when South Korea discovered them, North Korea painted their walls black and pretended they were coal mines.

#43

A doctor named Chester Southam injected his patients with cancer without their consent to see how their bodies would react.

Image credits: doopityWoop22

#44

In a family with twelve children, six of the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were later found to possess a genetic mutation that is so vital to brain function that it could help researchers understand how schizophrenia works.

#45

Scarlet Johansson ultimately didn’t get the lead role in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” because David Fincher thought she could provoke enough lust to distract the audience from the film itself.

#46

The only nonuplets (9 babies)to survive birth were born in 2021 in Morocco to parents from Mali. They are all healthy and thriving. They were reportedly naturally conceived and born in Morocco instead of Mali due to better chance of survival in Morocco.

#47

Instead of using CGI, Tim Burton opted to use real squirrels in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The squirrels were used for 10 months, and the filming was supervised by the American Humane Association to make sure none of the squirrels experienced distress.

#48

Russell Crowe turned down an offer to play Aragorn in the LOTR trilogy that included 10% of the backend grosses (which would’ve been about $100 million). He felt WB had forced Peter Jackson to make the offer & that Jackson had somebody else in mind & he should be allowed to hire who he wants.

Image credits: tyrion2024

#49

In the US, 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less. Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less. And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling once a year or less.

#50

In 2004, a starquake was detected, which was so powerful that if the star was located within 10 light years of Earth, it would have likely caused a mass extinction.

#51

The FDA does not recognize Dr Pepper as a cola, a root beer, or a fruit-flavored soft drink. Instead, Dr Pepper is said to be in a category of its own kind, called “pepper soda”, named for the brand.

#52

In 1567, surgeon Ambroise Pare decided to test whether bezoar stones, which were believed to cure poison, actually worked. He made a deal with a man condemned to death by poison: to give him a bezoar and let him go free if he lived. The man died in agony, proving that bezoars do not work.

#53

When you sleep your brain gets washed with spinal fluid.

#54

To keep up with Robin Williams’ improvisation on ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’, director Chris Columbus had to shoot the entire movie with extra cameras to get the other actors’ reactions. Two million feet of film were used. Columbus has 972 boxes full of outtakes.

#55

In 2008 an Australian special forces dog named Sarbi spent almost 14 months missing in action after disappearing during an ambush. Eventually an American soldier noticed her with a local man & confirmed she was a trained military dog by using voice commands. She was then reunited w/ her handlers.

#56

Pennies and nickels cost more to produce than their face value. The United States has lost nearly half a billion dollars minting pennies and nickels over the past 3 years(2021-2023).

#57

The city of Los Angeles pays more for parking enforcement/writing tickets than the parking tickets themselves actually generate in revenue for the city.

#58

One of the strategies proposed for raising the Titanic before it fully deteriorates was to fill it full of ping pong balls.

#59

The average American buys 53 new pieces of clothes each year.

#60

In Bali, there is law dictating that buildings (except in certain scenarios) cannot be taller than a coconut tree or 15m.

#61

When America joined WW1 they set upon purging their language of German words, Sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” Hamburger was rechristened “liberty steak” and German measles became “liberty measles.”

#62

In 2017, a 16 year old girl died of complications from “Rapunzel Syndrome”, which is a compulsion to eat your own hair.

#63

The Devil’s Advocate used to be an official position in the Catholic Church whose job was to find evidence against a saint candidate.

#64

A 6-year-old boy’s family reportedly staged his kidnapping in order to scare him because he was “too nice” to strangers. His aunt’s co-worker lured to him to his truck, told him he’d never “see his mommy again” & showed him a gun. After 4 hours, his family then lectured him about stranger danger.

#65

Reason why old sports photos often have a blue haze is because the arenas were filled with people smoking cigarettes.

#66

It was once proposed to bury nuclear waste at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, with the theory that tectonic plate subduction would eventually push it down into the Earth’s mantle.

#67

Eva Peron (Evita), wife of Argentina’s president Juan Peron, died of cervical cancer at the age of 33. He never told her that she had cancer and was dying. Ironically, his first wife also died of cervical cancer at 28 yrs old. Doctors felt that he passed the HPV virus on to his wives.

#68

In 1989, 20 tonnes of c*caine and $10 million in cash were seized from a warehouse in L.A. At the time, it was the largest dr*g seizure ever at a single location and it was unguarded with the door secured by a single $6 padlock. In today’s money, it’d be worth over $4.7 billion.

#69

Alcohol was legal in Saudi Arabia until 1952 after the Saudi King’s son shot and k*lled a British diplomat while drunk.

#70

‘River monster’ on Animal Planet ended as the host Jeremy said they’ve run out of monsters to uncover and he has checked off a lot on his list.

#71

During the parade of nations at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Greece always enters the stadium first due to its status as the birthplace of the Olympics.

#72

Benjamin Franklin was fond of dating older women, (in)famously writing 8 reasons why they were better than their younger counterparts. Among them, he stated that they naturally provided birth control, were discrete, and could not be distinguished from younger women from the girdle downwards.

#73

One of Emperor Hirohito’s most treasured possessions was a Mickey Mouse watch, which was presented to him on a trip to the US when he visited Disneyland in 1975. When he died in 1989 he was buried with the watch.

#74

Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, continually hated his comic’s name throughout his life. Whenever he was asked what he did for a living, he avoided using the comic’s official name, and instead said, “I draw that comic strip with Snoopy in it, Charlie Brown and his dog”.

#75

A Native American in the Amazon Rainforest who, as the last surviving member of his uncontacted tribe, lived in total and deliberate isolation for about 20 years. He left behind a deep hole of unknown purpose in each of his former homes, giving rise to his nickname: “Man of the Hole”.

#76

Polar explorers would treat snow blindness by dripping c*caine into their eyes.

#77

All humans share a common ancestor called “Mitochondrial Eve,” who lived around 150,000-200,000 years ago in Africa. She is the most recent woman from whom all living humans today descend through their mother’s side. Her mitochondrial DNA lineage is the only one to persist to modern times.

#78

In 2017, Ford Motor Company sued John Cena for selling his all-new Ford GT supercar too soon.

#79

The final line of Willy Wonka was originally written as Grandpa Joe yelling, ‘Yippee!’ The director hated it so much, he phoned up the screenwriter who was vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods and forced him to come up with a better line right on the spot as they were filming the ending.

#80

According to Seneca, a gladiator in training once locked himself in the toilet(the only place he was allowed to go unsupervised) and committed s*icide by shoving a toilet brush down his throat.

#81

Target used to be known for having a “Design of the Decade” award-winning pill bottle design, ClearRx, but it was discontinued when their pharmacy division was sold to CVS in 2015. The patent was filed in 2005 so in 2025 the design will be fair for anyone to use.

#82

There were only 4 times a US vice president assumed temporary presidential powers as acting president, and each time was due to the president having a colonoscopy.

#83

After William Jennings Bryan finished his Cross of Gold speech, the audience was completely silent. Bryan said that it was “really painful” and that he thought he had failed, but when he returned to his seat the entire audience went into pandemonium and it took 25 minutes to restore order.

#84

In Medieval Rome, the Colisseum was home to hundreds of people living inside its walls, being rented away by a nearby convent that maintained the ruins. It had a network of sewage pipes, horse stables, and people built new walls for their homes.

#85

There were experiments conducted in the 1950s where researchers gave their subjects manual control over the pleasure centers of their brains through the click of a button, wired to surgically implanted electrodes.

#86

Bestselling author James Patterson’s process typically begins with him writing an initial 50-70 page outline for a story and then encouraging his co-writers to start filling in the gaps with sentences, paragraphs and chapters. He also works 77-hour weeks to stay productive at age 75.

#87

“Hobson’s Choice”. It labels an illusion of free choice where only one thing is actually offered.

#88

In 2000, three teenagers working at a New York State Thruway Burger King tampered with food for over eight months, adding spit, urine, and oven cleaner.

#89

After Han official He Jin was assassinated by eunuchs, angry troops led by Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu set the palace on fire, slaughtering any males without facial hair. It was so extreme that young men were forced to flash themselves to avoid being mistaken for eunuchs and k*lled.

#90

The Madison Square Garden company uses facial recognition to keep out enemy lawyers.

#91

Your zodiac sign is probably wrong. They were created over 3,000 years ago. The earth’s tilt has changed since then so the constellations appear in completely different positions in the sky.

#92

Despite the popular belief that women weren’t allowed to watch the ancient Olympics because the athletes competed naked, only married women couldn’t actually attend the competition. Unmarried women were welcome and the priestess of Demeter even had a privileged spot.

#93

Hannibal Buress hired a lookalike to attend the movie premiere for “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in his place for $500 and it worked for the most part.

#94

Sea drops by about 328 ft (100m) near Sri Lanka because gravity is anomalously weaker there.

#95

TIL of the Japanese concept of “Wa,” in which everyone strives to prioritize the development of society over the individual. It is seen as a fundamental aspect of Japanese society.

#96

Tim Horton’s employee were arrested for selling drugs in 2000 after a store manager noticed some drive-thru customers were ordering 15-packs of doughnuts. It was a code since Tim Horton’s doesn’t sell 15 packs.

#97

With a running start, Usain Bolt ran a 100m in 8.70 seconds in 2009.

#98

Harry Kane, an English professional footballer and captain of the England national team, considered one of the best players in the world, scoring over 400 goals, has never won a major trophy.

#99

Motorcycles in China are dictated by law to be decommissioned and destroyed in 13 years after registration regardless of the conditions.

#100

Judd Nelson, the actor who played John Bender in The Breakfast Club, almost got fired from the production for staying in character and harassing co-star Molly Ringwald off-camera.

#101

Residential lawns in the US use up about 9 billion gallons of water every day.

#102

Average human height went down from 5’10” (178 cm) for men and 5’6″ (168 cm) for women to 5’5″ (165 cm) and 5’1″ (155 cm) 10,000 years ago and it took until the 20th century for average human height to match pre-Neolithic Revolution levels.

#103

The Isle of Mann TT – the world’s deadliest race – has been happening annually since 1908 and only twice (1982 & 2024) has nobody died.

#104

In 1989 Teng Xingshan was convicted and executed for the murder of waitress Shi Xiaorong who had disappeared. In 1993 Shi reappeared said she had never met Teng.

#105

One of the reasons Target Canada failed was because some items wouldn’t fit on the shelves properly. This was due to item dimensions being entered into their system in inches, rather than centimeters.

#106

Finnish babies’ first bed is often a cardboard box. The government sends all expectant mothers a box with baby supplies, and the box includes a small mattress at the bottom meant to stay in the box.

#107

In Britain during WW1, it was illegal to buy someone else a drink in a pub.

#108

While filming the witch burning scene in Day of Wrath, director Carl Theodor Dreyer decided to leave the actress tied to a wooden ladder while the crew went for lunch. He used her genuine distress to film the scene.

#109

In 1941 the US produced over 3 million civilian cars. After joining the War, only 139 were made throughout the remainder of the War.

#110

The US Navy refused to cooperate with the filming of the movie Crimson Tide (1995), so getting officially sanctioned footage of a submarine wasn’t possible. Instead, the film crew waited at a naval base until a submarine was actually put to sea and pursued it in a boat and helicopter.

#111

In the early 20th century, Punjabi men who immigrated to California ended up marrying Mexican women due to shared cultural similarities and legal constraints on interracial marriage. This led to a unique Punjabi Mexican American community, where elements of both cultures blended.

#112

Because Kid Rock refused to sell his music on iTunes until 2012, his 2008 hit “All Summer Long” was out-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 by an instrumental cover from the karaoke company Hit Masters (the songs peaked at #23 and #19, respectively).

#113

In 2011, John Riccitiello, who was the CEO of EA at the time and is now the CEO of Unity, proposed a model for online multiplayer shooters like Battlefield. In this model, players who ran out of ammo could make an instant real money payment for a quick reload.

#114

TIL of a Serbian Vodka that, at 88% alcohol, comes with 13 health warnings including one in braille.

#115

Amazon used to manufacture “dash buttons” where if you press the button (which can be mounted anywhere) the product the button is linked to is automatically ordered.

#116

The every Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux indian receives a payout of around $1 million per year from casino profits.

#117

The most effective surrender leaflet in WW2 was known as the “Passierschein”. It was designed to appeal to German sensibilities for official, fancy documents printed on nice paper with official seals and signatures. It promised safe passage and generous treatment to any who presented it.

#118

Following a deadly avalanche in 1962, Peruvian authorities were warned of the potential for a much larger slide to occur by a group of American climbers. These warnings were not only ignored but actively suppressed. 8 years later the deadliest avalanche in history occurred, killing 30k.

#119

The creator of RC cola developed his own formula because a Coca Cola salesman refused to give him a reduced price for buying the syrup in bulk.

#120

World renowned swimmer Michael Phelps considered becoming a professional golfer after retiring from swimming and also holds the world record for the longest televised putt at 159 feet.

#121

The largest and most expensive animatronic Disney developed, the Yeti in “Expedition Everest,” is stuck in stationary mode as the cement supporting the Yeti isn’t perfect and Disney doesn’t want to risk the animatronic moving and falling on guests.

#122

The man who unsuccessfully treated President Garfield after he was shot, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss (First name Doctor), was expelled from the Washington DC Medical Society for his advocacy of homeopathy and his refusal to support the society’s segregation of black doctors.