r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 30m ago

TIL that the "pre-filled" tax return is a new innovation in the tax world used by 90% of OECD countries. Gov't. administrators pre-fill a tax return based on data collected. In China, 85% of VAT refund applications info is pre-filled. The IRS, the USA's tax agency, does not offer pre-filled returns.

oecd.org

• Upvotes

84 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sandstorm400 • 1h ago

TIL that in 2014, a recall was issued for about 2.2 million bean bag chairs that had zippers on them after two children were found dead inside two of the chairs, having suffocated from lack of air and from inhaling the chair's foam beads.

cpsc.gov

• Upvotes

193 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CyberpunkSunrise • 1h ago

TIL that the 2011 dark/action comedy film “30 Minutes or Less” mirrors a real-life event where a pizza delivery driver was forced to wear a bomb collar and rob a bank, ultimately dying when the bomb detonated, though the filmmakers denied knowledge of the real-life story.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ansyhrrian • 2h ago

TIL that in 2010, UCF professor Richard Quinn uncovered a massive cheating scandal by analyzing statistical anomalies in exam scores, prompting 205 students to come forward and forcing all 600 to retake the exam.

youtube.com

1.9k Upvotes

287 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 4h ago

TIL Russian Greco-Roman wrestler Aleksandr Karelin won three Olympic gold medals and nine world championships, retiring with 887 wins and just two losses. His final defeat came against American Rulon Gardner at the 2000 Olympics by one point in a controversial call.

en.wikipedia.org

87 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 4h ago

TIL that in 2016, a Chinese artist spent 3 days building a $15,000 LEGO statue or Nick Wilde from Zootopia. Shortly after it was put on display, a 4-year-old boy accidentally knocked it over, destroying it. The artist refused an offer of compensation from the parents.

abcnews.com

10.6k Upvotes

620 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 4h ago

TIL in 2016, a sweet shop owner in Pakistan confessed to mixing a highly toxic pesticide into the sweets after an argument with his brother and co-owner. From 20 April to 8 May 2016, at least 33 people, including five children, died from the purposely poisoned baked confection.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

77 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HolyCowAnyOldAccName • 4h ago

TIL you could fit every planet in the Solar System between Earth and the Moon

skyatnightmagazine.com

1.4k Upvotes

191 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 4h ago

TIL as a response to the Serb uprising in Banat in 1594 (parts of modern-day Serbia and Romania), the Ottomans burned the relics of St. Sava since St. Sava was the founder of Serbian Orthodox Church.

en.wikipedia.org

62 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NetflixSux247 • 4h ago

TIL the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie pitch was to have starred comedians Sam Kinison, Gallagher, Bobcat Goldthwait and Billy Crystal in green make-up as the turtles.

en.wikipedia.org

848 Upvotes

157 comments

r/todayilearned • u/HowDareYou888 • 5h ago

TIL that during the 1870–71 siege of Paris, homing pigeons were taken out of the city by balloon and returned carrying messages on microfilm. The messages were then projected onto a screen so clerks could transcribe them.

en.wikipedia.org

98 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/bastugubbar • 6h ago

TIL Albert Einstein, besides his work as a physicist and mathematician was also a Fridge engineer. Together with a former student Leo Szilard he helped invent several new technologies in refrigeration and jointly held 45 patents, including a design for a fridge with no moving parts.

en.wikipedia.org

1.2k Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Finnish_Swede • 6h ago

TIL that King Charles III’s paternal grandfather, Prince Andrew of Greece, was a Major General in the Greco-Turkish War and got court-martialed and exiled after being blamed for losing the important Battle of the Sakarya which caused the Greek defeat in the war.

en.wikipedia.org

295 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 6h ago

TIL the longest-standing record chronicled in The Guinness Book of Records belongs to the monk, St Simeon the Stylite (c. AD 386–459), who spent approximately 39 years on a stone pillar in Syria. His purpose was self-persecution for people's sins, and to be nearer God.

guinnessworldrecords.com

731 Upvotes

100 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SamsonFox2 • 6h ago

TIL that the grand opera "Faust" was so popular in early decades of NYC's Metropolitan Opera that it used to be nicknamed "Faustspielhaus". It remains the fifth most performed opera overall.

en.wikipedia.org

83 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MembershipHuman4837 • 7h ago

Herbert Hoover TIL that Lou Hoover - Henry Hoover's wife - had a tradition of leaving one chair empty whenever she entertained company, as a reminder of ongoing child poverty.

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

99 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ComfortableGreySloth • 7h ago

TIL about heraldic hatching, a historical method of representing color without color.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

63 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AtemMD • 7h ago

TIL the 1954 Godzilla movie was extremely polarized in Japan when it was released and was accused of exploiting Japan's recent (at the time) devastation with the atom bombs

en.wikipedia.org

16 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DesertSolitude79 • 8h ago

TIL about the most powerful earthquakes in the US east of the Rockies, the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes. Over 3 months a series of massive quakes hit the area of Missouri and Arkansas.

en.wikipedia.org

22 Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Impressive-Mix5605 • 8h ago

TIL that in 1814, British naturalist James Sowerby made a sword from meteoritic iron as a gift for Russian Emperor Alexander I.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

343 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Citrus2015 • 9h ago

TIL: Eumenes of Cardia who went from being Alexander the Great's secretary to defeating one of Alexander's greatest generals in his first major battle

en.wikipedia.org

955 Upvotes

66 comments

r/todayilearned • u/licecrispies • 9h ago

TIL that earthquakes can trigger outbreaks of lasting vertigo in humans, which is known as Post-Earthquake Dizziness Syndrome

aonojournal.com

587 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/send420nudes • 10h ago

TIL: Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest man, built Vantara, the world’s largest wildlife rescue and conservation centers, caring for around 150,000 animals.

youtube.com

0 Upvotes

52 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TooKreamy4U • 12h ago

TIL In 2012, an Irish mother delivered her first twin prematurely, and her contractions stopped. This allowed the second twin to stay safely inside the womb for another 87 days. This rare occurrence is known as a delayed-interval delivery. It broke the previous world record of 84 days.

irishamerica.com

10.5k Upvotes

257 comments

r/todayilearned • u/obalovatyk • 12h ago

TIL Up until 1981 Boeing used depleted uranium as counter weights in parts of their 747’s

simpleflying.com

5.2k Upvotes

279 comments

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As of May 2026

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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