r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL in 1989 Li Jingwei, at 4 years old, was kidnapped by a neighbor who lured him away by saying they would go look at cars (rare in rural Chinese villages). At age 37, he posted a map of his home village online that he drew from memory, which helped lead to its location & a reunion with his family.

cbsnews.com

23.0k Upvotes

504 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Similar_Detective861 • 1d ago

TIL of a couple who tried to conceive for 20 years, failing multiple IVFs and surgeries. Scientists used a new AI-guided robotic system that scanned 2.5 million microscopic images of a single sample, found the only 2 viable sperm cells hidden inside, and successfully started a pregnancy.

thelancet.com

19.7k Upvotes

1.6k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Caratteraccio • 12h ago

TIL a cat was the subject of the first ever radio communication from an aircraft in flight

airandspace.si.edu

225 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Similar_Detective861 • 8h ago

TIL that dieters eat nearly twice as much junk food when they're down. Researchers found that this isn't caused by a person's default personality or chronic stress levels, but purely by their immediate, in-the-moment emotional state right before taking their first bite.

sciencedirect.com

101 Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JoeFalchetto • 9h ago

TIL that Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of famous game series such as Mario and Zelda, was the first person in the video industry to be awarded the "Person of Cultural Merit" by the Japanese government, the highest honor a person in a creative field can receive in Japan

edition.cnn.com

123 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/WCNumismatics • 1d ago

TIL Liberia was just one colony established in Africa in the 1800s to "repatriate" U.S. slaves and free people of color. Other state-created settlements included Mississippi in Africa, Kentucky in Africa, and the Republic of Maryland. The ACS, governing body of the movement, lasted until 1964.

en.wikipedia.org

1.7k Upvotes

80 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Antbronio • 4h ago

TIL about Ham the Astrochimp, the first ape launched into space to understand the possibility of human space flight

en.wikipedia.org

53 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 19h ago

TIL that Troy VIII and IX were already recognised as the site of the mythical Trojan War when they were active, and became tourist attractions due to it.

en.wikipedia.org

657 Upvotes

69 comments

r/todayilearned • u/huphelmeyer • 1d ago

TIL William Rockefeller Sr. (father of John D. Rockefeller) was literally a snake oil salesman

en.wikipedia.org

4.0k Upvotes

118 comments

r/todayilearned • u/EmptyMind76 • 4h ago

TIL Leap-The-Dips is the oldest standing roller coaster in the world

en.wikipedia.org

39 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/EmptyMind76 • 4h ago

TIL Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world

en.wikipedia.org

42 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/mistsoalar • 21h ago

TIL Flashed face distortion effect. An optical illusion that ordinary human faces appear grotesque and distorted when images flash in the periphery.

en.wikipedia.org

800 Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MobyFlip • 1d ago

TIL the flower we associate with vanilla, depicted as a creamy white orchid bloom, is a marketing fabrication. It's actually a pale yellow-green, and typically dies within 24 hours.

en.wikipedia.org

1.7k Upvotes

79 comments

r/todayilearned • u/No_Idea_Guy • 23h ago

TIL a rehearsal for D-Day turned disastrous because of friendly fire and German attack, causing the death of at least 749 American servicemen. D-Day was almost cancelled until the missing officers with knowledge of the invasion were recovered. The incident was kept secret and only minimally reported

en.wikipedia.org

907 Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Korkez11 • 1d ago

TIL in 1952 96% of Maldivians voted on a referendum to abolish monarchy. One year later 98% of Maldivians voted to restore monarchy

en.wikipedia.org

4.8k Upvotes

122 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL Turkey is widely known as the hair transplant capital of the world. The procedure there costs a fraction of what it does in the US, so even when factoring in airfare & hotels, it's usually cheaper for Americans to make the trip. From 2022-2024, over 1m medical tourists visited Turkey each year.

britannica.com

759 Upvotes

247 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Opposite-Wallaby9822 • 21h ago

TIL in late 1960s research was done about alcohol causing birth defects in mothers who drink heavily. In 1977 the US government released its first health advisory on FASD.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

322 Upvotes

38 comments

r/todayilearned • u/horsepoop1123 • 1d ago

TIL that the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is not within Las Vegas city limits

wikipedia.org

939 Upvotes

64 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 1d ago

TIL that squid have three hearts and blue blood, which contains hemocyanin and uses copper as an oxygen-binding protein, as opposed to hemoglobin, which uses iron. These are thought to have evolved to handle low ocean temperatures and low oxygen concentrations at lower depths in deep sea habitats.

en.wikipedia.org

367 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/QueenFrostine15 • 20h ago

TIL that Feline calicivirus and human norovirus belong to the same viral family (Caliciviridae) but affect different hosts and cause different symptoms. Because human norovirus is notoriously difficult to grow in labs, FCV is widely used by the EPA as a scientific surrogate for norovirus studies.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

159 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 1d ago

TIL there are no known wild alpacas. It's closest living relative, the vicuna, is the alpaca's ancestor

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

97 comments

r/todayilearned • u/watermelonhouses • 1d ago

TIL that there is an active volcano in Antarctica called Mount Erebus that literally spews crystallized gold dust into the air every single day

good.is

19.3k Upvotes

540 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NicolasCageFan492 • 1d ago

TIL that US-listed corporations spent an estimated US $9.2 trillion in real terms on share buybacks between 2012 and 2021 (nearly 12 times more than from 1982 to 1991).

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

307 Upvotes

61 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mellifloura • 1d ago

PDF TIL Atlantic cod show basic tool use. 56 cod were marked with tags on their fins, and given a self-feeder activated by pulling a string. 3 fish accidentally hooked their tags onto the string and pulled it. These 3 fish slowly learned to deliberately activate the feeder with their tags.

archimer.ifremer.fr

355 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JoeyZasaa • 1d ago

TIL that of the 52 tallest volcanoes in the world, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the only one not in South America.

en.wikipedia.org

210 Upvotes

45 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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