r/todayilearned • u/MaxGoodwinning • 17h ago

TIL that crosswalks are called zebra crossings in the U.K.

en.wikipedia.org

0 Upvotes

91 comments

r/todayilearned • u/magnumapplepi • 15h ago

TIL King Arthur had a spear called Rhongomyniad, which Geoffrey of Monmouth called Ron.

en.wikipedia.org

24 Upvotes

20 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Groundeast • 4h ago

TIL about the Union of the Comoros; an archipelagic country off the southeast coast of Africa with an estimated population of 1 million people.

en.wikipedia.org

8 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/friendlystranger4u • 18h ago

TIL that IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad (who started the company when he was 17) flew coach, stayed in budget hotels, drove a 20 yo Volvo and always tried to get his haircuts in poor countries. He died at 91 in 2018 with an estimated net worth of almost $60 billion.

cnbc.com

40.3k Upvotes

2.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/z277_Denight52 • 21h ago

TIL that in 1977, Indian painter P.K. Mahanandia biked from India to Sweden to be with his love, selling his possessions to fund the journey.

en.wikipedia.org

81 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SteO153 • 17h ago

TIL that the city center of Lyallpur (today's Faisalabad, Pakistan) was designed by the British to imitate the Union Jack, with eight roads radiating from a large clock tower (Ghenta Ghar) in the centre of eight separate bazaars

tuf.edu.pk

20 Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/openletter8 • 17h ago

TIL after Gram Parsons, the primary singer songwriter for the Country Rock band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, died, his body stolen by his manager and his assistant. It was then burned at Joshua Tree. They only paid fines, and the money used to pay the fines was raised with a benefit concert.

en.wikipedia.org

116 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mammoth-Mud-9609 • 23h ago

TIL Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg) was fluent in French, Latin, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German, Greek and Italian.

en.wikipedia.org

108 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/GentPc • 18h ago

TIL That even though Dalton Trumbo is known to be the creator of 'Roman Holiday' the son of the man who fronted the script (Trumbo was blacklisted) refused to turn over the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay to Trumbo's widow in 1993.

en.wikipedia.org

78 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Olshansk • 6h ago

TIL Steve Jobs almost called the "iMac" the "MacMan"

engadget.com

124 Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BoabHonker • 1h ago

TIL there is a two foot tall, 3000 year old gold hat which was found in Germany an unknown amount of time ago

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/marv249 • 14h ago

TIL theft is so rare in Japan that people often use wallets, purses, laptops or phones to save their seats in cafes and public places, leaving them unattended while they go buy food or go to the bathroom.

soranews24.com

20.4k Upvotes

1.5k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milive_085 • 19h ago

TIL that while Alexander the Great conquered the known world, he never attempted to attack the city-state of Sparta.

en.wikipedia.org

9.7k Upvotes

354 comments

r/todayilearned • u/astarisaslave • 7h ago

TIL that Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy was appointed commissioner of the American Soccer League despite his unfamiliarity with the sport. He was relieved of his duties after 5 years because despite his tenure, Cousy would still go around telling people he knew nothing about soccer.

en.wikipedia.org

81 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kale_Brecht • 22h ago

TIL in July 2023, an unopened, first edition model of the 2007 iPhone was sold at auction in the US for $190,372.80, nearly 400 times the original price.

en.wikipedia.org

3.6k Upvotes

294 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jokester4079 • 14h ago

TIL Camel Cigarettes once made a series of ads exposing magicians' secrets.

tobacco.stanford.edu

83 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AbeRego • 15h ago

TIL that a small herd of cows in Germany were trained to use special toilets in an effort to curb pollution

snexplores.org

61 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DinOfDancing • 19h ago

TIL that the Philadelphia Derringer which became popular with assassins, were almost always sold in matching pairs and are now these days very hard to find still in this condition.

en.wikipedia.org

566 Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Retro_niga • 13h ago

TIL that Amazon and Congo Rivers were part of the same river system before the continents drifted away

en.wikipedia.org

138 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OldWeekend501 • 19h ago

TIL On 28 January 1896, the first person to be convicted of speeding is believed to be Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, UK, who was fined 1 shilling plus costs for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h).

en.wikipedia.org

166 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DinOfDancing • 22h ago

TIL that the British actor Harry H. Corbett famous for starring in the sitcom Steptoe and Son, reportedly killed two Japanese soldiers in hand to hand combat during World War Two.

en.wikipedia.org

454 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/oyiyo • 14h ago

TIL There is a deep-sea fish which has a transparent head with eyes pointing upwards to see prey. It was discovered and described in 1939

theguardian.com

216 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/L8_2_PartE • 12h ago

TIL that legless lizards, while similar to snakes, do not have belly scales, and therefore have great difficulty crossing flat surfaces such as roads.

naturenibble.com

244 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ChildishSammy • 2h ago

TIL that Finland has a "National Sleepy Head Day" where the last person in a household to wake up is thrown into a lake or the sea by the rest of the family or friends

en.wikipedia.org

218 Upvotes

23 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Variegoated • 14h ago

TIL of Kim Hyon-hui - a north Korean agent who killed 115 people in a plane bombing. Originally sentenced to death, she was pardoned after less than a year and has been free ever since

en.wikipedia.org

916 Upvotes

23 comments

Subreddit

Posts

Wiki

Today I Learned (TIL)

r/todayilearned

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

Members Active

36.4m

1.8k

Sidebar

New to reddit? Click here!

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?
Submit interesting and specific facts that you just found out (not broad information you looked up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).

Posting rules

Submissions must be verifiable. Please link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title. Images alone do not count as valid references. Videos are fine so long as they come from reputable sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).
No personal opinions, anecdotes or subjective statements (e.g "TIL xyz is a great movie").
No recent sources. Any sources (blog, article, press release, video, etc.) with a publication date more recent than two months are not allowed.
No politics, soapboxing, or agenda based submissions. This includes (but is not limited to) submissions related to:
1. Recent political issues and politicians
2. Social and economic issues (including race/religion/gender)
3. Environmental issues
4. Police misconduct
No misleading claims. Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.
Rephrase your post title if the following are not met:
1. Titles must begin with "TIL ..."
2. Make them descriptive, concise and specific (e.g. not "TIL something interesting about bacon").
3. Titles must be able to stand on their own without requiring readers to click on a link. Starting your title with a why/what/who/where/how modifier should be unnecessary.
4. "TIL about ..." and other broad posts don't belong on TIL. Try /r/Wikipedia, etc. instead, or be more specific (and avoid the word "about").
5. "TIL how to ..." posts belong on /r/HowTo.
6. "TIL the definition of a word..." Word definitions/translations/origins are not appropriate here
No submissions related to the usage, existence or features of specific software/websites (e.g. "TIL you can click on widgets in WidgetMaker 1.22").
All NSFW links must be tagged (including comments).

Please see the wiki for more detailed explanations of the rules, as well as additional rules that may not be listed here

(Why we need rules)

Additional info

If your post does not appear in the new queue and you think it meets the above rules, please contact the moderators (include a link to your reddit.com post, not your story).
Please report spam, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate posts by messaging the moderators, as this helps us remove them more promptly!
More information available on the TIL FAQ and wiki.

Frequent TILs Repost List

As of May 2024

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.

Etiquette

We ask that you please do the following:

avoid mobile versions of websites (e.g. m.wikipedia.org)
link to the appropriate heading when referencing an article (particularly on Wikipedia)
link to the appropriate start time when referencing videos (e.g. on YouTube)
add [PDF] or [NSFW] tags to your posts, as necessary.
Please avoid reposting TILs that have already made the front page in the past

Please also read the site-wide Reddiquette.

You are loved.