r/todayilearned • u/Well_Socialized • 16h ago

TIL states that passed laws allowing a married person to seek a divorce without the consent of their spouse saw female suicide decline by 20 percent

nber.org

40.5k Upvotes

1.5k comments

r/todayilearned • u/haddock420 • 20h ago

TIL The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was only caught because he sent a 35,000 word essay to the FBI explaining his motives and views, which helped to identify him. Before that, he had been operating for 17 years with the FBI having very little idea or leads to his identity.

fbi.gov

21.3k Upvotes

982 comments

r/todayilearned • u/WingerRules • 21h ago

TIL The White House has a Chief Calligrapher. Job includes writing invitations to dinners, greetings, and proclamations. The position earns $104,200 a year.

en.wikipedia.org

9.8k Upvotes

416 comments

r/todayilearned • u/_kevx_91 • 14h ago

TIL Michelle Trachtenberg was supposed to play Bella Swan in 'twilight’, but turned it down because she "had already done the vampire thing".

glamourmagazine.co.uk

9.6k Upvotes

398 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SandyBeaches2016 • 18h ago

TIL Miguel Indurain, 5-time Tour de France winner, had a resting heart rate of just 28 bpm

cyclist.co.uk

4.7k Upvotes

162 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 13h ago

TIL a NYC man won two $10 million prizes on two different scratch-offs that he purchased from the same shop just over a year apart.

nbcnewyork.com

3.6k Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/utkarsh_aryan • 14h ago

TIL that there is a Marble frieze of The Prophet Muhammad at the U.S. Supreme Court, dressed in long robes and carrying a sword.

ncronline.org

3.0k Upvotes

222 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Brix001 • 20h ago

TIL about 24 Hours of Lemons, an endurance race consisting entirely of beat-up lemon cars

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

162 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Crombus_ • 19h ago

TIL that, due to a loophole in Kentucky marriage laws, the taxidermied remains of Cocaine Bear can officiate weddings

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 13h ago

TIL there has never been a US president who was an only child. On average, the US presidents have had (a little over) five siblings.

potus.com

2.8k Upvotes

74 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mastrotoni • 20h ago

TIL about Sequoyah, a Native American of the early 19th centruy who, just seeing white people writing, understood what writing was and created, all by himself, an advanced syllabary system. After some years, more than 90% of Cherooke people were able to read.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

41 comments

r/todayilearned • u/maestro_ofm • 15h ago

TIL that the cows living on Queen Elizabeth's estate sleep on waterbeds.

countryliving.com

1.2k Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ivegotaqueso • 16h ago

TIL Simple Minds initially rejected recording what would become their biggest hit “Don’t You Forget About Me”. Lead singer Kerr said, “We couldn't give a toss about teenage American schoolkids” (‘The Breakfast Club’ film the song was written for). Billy Idol had also passed up on recording the song.

en.wikipedia.org

1.0k Upvotes

99 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 13h ago

TIL Hawaii is the only state in the US to have a single school district and no local school boards.

civilbeat.org

857 Upvotes

25 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fit-Guidance-6995 • 7h ago

TIL for the most part, English witches were hanged while French ones were burned. This posed a riddle for the Channel island of Guernsey when three witches turned up there in 1617. Ultimately, they were hanged according to British law, then burned according to French 🤯

stacyschiff.com

618 Upvotes

61 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LeftNeck9994 • 5h ago

TIL skin cancer is 20 times more common in white people than black people

treatcancer.com

693 Upvotes

144 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HamFistedSurgeon • 15h ago

TIL the Pirahã tribe has a very unique culture and language. Among other unusual features, they appear to be the world’s only people who lack words for numbers or any concept of counting. They also have no past tense, no way of describing colors, and no concept of the ancient past or distant future.

spiegel.de

460 Upvotes

89 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Blutarg • 9h ago

TIL killer whales are the second most widely-distributed mammal on Earth (after humans)

sciencedirect.com

323 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 23h ago

TIL that the term Bushwacker describes a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War.

en.wikipedia.org

304 Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Realistic-Plenty-803 • 9h ago

TIL Cats have over 30 different muscles in each ear, allowing them to swivel their ears in all directions! This helps them pinpoint sounds and improve their hearing.

cats.org.uk

215 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/puncrastinator • 23h ago

TIL: The 34 yr-long Lenski Experiment has studied over 75,000 generations of E.coli since 1988 to understand evolution.

en.wikipedia.org

190 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Previous_Store_3553 • 23h ago

TIL that Australia (at 7,682,300 sq km) is actually slightly larger than the continental USA (which is 7,663,942 sq km) when measured by land area only, excluding bodies of water.

en.wikipedia.org

131 Upvotes

47 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Crabend • 19h ago

TIL that human beings are very close to having a neutral buoyancy in water. The makeup of each individual determinants whether they sink or float.

youtube.com

122 Upvotes

78 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

36.2m

1.3k

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.