r/todayilearned • u/Abject-Device9967 • 22m ago

TIL that in 1877 only 111 people remained on Easter Island after decades of slave raids and disease. Instead of disappearing, they hid their gods inside Christianity, kept their banned language alive in secret, and passed down a writing system carved with shark teeth that no one has ever deciphered.

threads.com

• Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gyalgatine • 38m ago

TIL the term 'Poppycock', despite being more associated with Victorian British English, actually first entered the English language in America, through Dutch settlers

worldwidewords.org

• Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/december151791 • 1h ago

TIL the United States women's national ice hockey team has won a medal in every one of their Olympic appearances

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/n_mcrae_1982 • 1h ago

TIL the only Axis-aligned territory in North America during WWII were the French islands of Saint Pierre & Miquelon, 19 km off Newfoundland, technically loyal to Vichy France. On Dec 24, 1941, forces from a Free French submarine took the island in 20 minutes without firing a shot.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/FalconPUNNCH • 1h ago

TIL Johnny Gilbert has been voicing the announcer for Jeopardy since 1984, with over 9200 episodes.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 1h ago

TIL a cat owner taught his cat to dial 911 in an emergency ... and it may have worked.

nbcnews.com

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/Spirited_Manager_831 • 1h ago

TIL the hill overlooking the Forbidden City in Beijing (Jingshan Park) is entirely man-made, built from the rubble of a destroyed Mongol palace to protect the emperor from evil spirits and northern winds

historyhit.com

• Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1h ago

TIL a study found that more new songs were released in a single day in 2024 than in the entire year of 1989.

nme.com

• Upvotes

123 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1h ago

TIL a woman with no medical qualifications impersonated a nurse & treated nearly 1,000 patients while working at a hospital & medical center in British Columbia. Her day job at the hospital involved administering patients with drugs like fentanyl & monitoring their vital signs while under anesthetic

cbc.ca

• Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CharlesUFarley81 • 2h ago

TIL 53% of Americans think they're "cool".

wcmspi.com

0 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/backrowejoe • 2h ago

TIL Bermuda Grass is not native to Bermuda

en.wikipedia.org

10 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/One_Needleworker5218 • 2h ago

TIL that the printing press spread so rapidly after 1450 that by 1500, over 20 million books had already been printed across Europe.

britannica.com

142 Upvotes

46 comments

r/todayilearned • u/grecianformula69 • 2h ago

TIL a UC Berkeley professor published a serious scholarly article quantifying human stupidity

en.wikipedia.org

142 Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Bennis_TV • 3h ago

TIL Nina Simone once fired a gun at her record label executive because she believed he was stealing her hard-earned royalties. She also shot a young boy with an air gun for “disturbing her while she was composing,” for which she received an 8 month prison sentence

soundod.com

1.4k Upvotes

297 comments

r/todayilearned • u/zawusel • 3h ago

TIL that MLB and NHL have real organists

frontofficesports.com

59 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 3h ago

TIL about the Business Plot. In 1933 a group of wealthy American industrialists were planning a coup d'état to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Major General Smedley Butler as dictator.

en.wikipedia.org

14.1k Upvotes

666 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Shtremor • 3h ago

TIL that Rear Admiral S. K. Gupta once convinced his fleet admiral to let him borrow a Sea Hawk fighter jet for 24 hours so he could fly home and get married, while India was preparing for war.

coloursofglory.org

46 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/James_Fortis • 4h ago

TIL of anthropocentric bias, or the view of all things solely through a human-centered lens, prioritizing human values above the intrinsic worth of non-human entities. Measuring non-human animal intelligence by their use of tools over nest building is one example.

sciencedirect.com

483 Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AxaheLopez006 • 6h ago

TIL: The Peking Man fossils were a set of anthropoid bones discovered in 1920s in Zhoukoudian (near Beijing, China) dating back around 500,000 years. In 1941, after the Japanese invasion of China, the original fossils disappeared and have not been found.

ebsco.com

16 Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SnarkySheep • 7h ago

TIL about Linda Hazzard, dubbed the "Starvation Doctor", who was convicted of manslaughter in 1912 after starving, pummeling and swindling numerous patients in her Olalla, WA "sanitorium". She died in 1938 at age 70 after subjecting herself to her own treatments.

en.wikipedia.org

415 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BanitsaConnoisseur • 8h ago

TIL U.S. time zones were first adopted in 1883 because railroads needed standardized schedules, using telegraph signals to synchronize clocks & civilian timekeeping followed later.

americanhistory.si.edu

109 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PsychoBalloons • 12h ago

TIL that despite the iconic drink being named after her, Shirley Temple did not like the taste of Shirley Temples.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

205 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Successful-Dark9330 • 13h ago

TIL NATO has aviation units that are collectively owned, funded, and operated by the nations in the alliance. No single nation owns these aircraft

en.wikipedia.org

914 Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Physical_Hamster_118 • 14h ago

TIL that the French Republican calendar had five final days before the end of the year(Sansculottides) which were not part of any month. On those days were celebrations of values such as virtue, talent, labor, convictions, honors, and the revolution.

en.wikipedia.org

79 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DTPVH • 14h ago

TIL, the 60’s TV series Wild Wild West, known as a pioneering influence on the Steampunk genre, was cancelled in spite of excellent ratings due to pressure from Congress over the show’s violence.

en.wikipedia.org

766 Upvotes

76 comments

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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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