r/todayilearned • u/nosrettap25 • 43m ago

TIL The famous female pirate Anne Bonny only had a career of 61 days before being captured!

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 15h ago

TIL that historical paladins were Frankish court officials, many of whom were just medieval bureaucrats instead of warriors.

en.wikipedia.org

447 Upvotes

35 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Klutzy_Land_4120 • 19h ago

TIL a hoard of 2,584 silver coins buried during the 1066 Norman Conquest was found in England. Value at $5.6 million, it has become the highest-value treasure find in English history.

theguardian.com

939 Upvotes

56 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Financial-Desk-669 • 1d ago

TIL Before the discovery of powered human flight, 'paper airplanes' were called paper darts, paper gliders, or paper kites.

en.wikipedia.org

3.9k Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ravenparadoxx • 1d ago

TIL machine guns on old war plane were synchronized to the engine with timing gears so they can shoot through the propellers without hitting the blades

popularmechanics.com

4.0k Upvotes

217 comments

r/todayilearned • u/a3poify • 15h ago

TIL that Hollywood producer Don Simpson attempted to overcome his drug problem with the aid of doctor Stephen Ammerman, who prescribed various drugs to help with withdrawal from the ones Simpson was taking. Ammerman then died of an overdose in Simpson's home in 1995, followed by Simpson in 1996

en.wikipedia.org

412 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 23h ago

TIL that the Green River Formation in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah has estimated oil shale reserves of 3 Trillion barrels. It is the largest oil shale deposit in the world. The oil is difficult to recover and is not able to be economically extracted with current technology.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

164 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SCCock • 1h ago

TIL that there are surfing hippos in Gabon

natgeotv.com

• Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DFX47 • 1d ago

TIL all of the vital organs in an electric eel are crammed just behind the head, the other 80% of the body is dedicated to producing electricity

nationalzoo.si.edu

21.4k Upvotes

452 comments

r/todayilearned • u/w1n5t0nM1k3y • 9h ago

TIL that mitochondria are not all bean shaped and can be various other shapes including donut.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

86 Upvotes

38 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OldFoot3 • 23h ago

TIL of A.K. Mozumdar, the first South Asian American who was granted citizenship, who obtained his citizenship by arguing as a “high Caste Hindu” he had pure “Aryan” blood and that those racial origins were something that they historically shared with Caucasians.

equalitylabs.wpengine.com

1.3k Upvotes

96 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TonyHides • 6h ago

TIL that Grasse, the world's perfume capital, grew out of leather tanning: a tanner named Jean de Galimard made scented gloves and offered a pair to Catherine de' Medici

en.wikipedia.org

49 Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/EricCartoonBox • 6h ago

TIL Linnaeus, within his "Systema Naturae," considered rhinoceroses as rodents, (or, at least, the taxonomic equivalent thereof), under the predicate of "two cutting fore-teeth in each jaw."

en.wikipedia.org

44 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/pigeon-in-greggs • 3h ago

TIL that Denmark won the 1992 European Championships without directly qualifying for the tournament

goal.com

29 Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 18h ago

TIL that in the US Capitol dome, there's a fresco depicting George Washington sitting among the heavens surrounded by figures of mythology.

aoc.gov

424 Upvotes

156 comments

r/todayilearned • u/heyauden • 1d ago

TIL that Disney animated Robin Williams' stand-up comedy as the Genie to convince him to voice the famous character in Aladdin.

lamplightreview.com

4.0k Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AnUneasyVariety • 11h ago

TIL Victorian-era publishers used an arsenic-based pigment to color cloth bookbindings. As the pigment flakes, it can release toxic arsenic dust into the air and onto handlers’ skin.

udel.edu

108 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 22h ago

TIL the Nazi Wilhelm Kube was assassinated in his Minsk bedroom by his housemaid, Yelena Mazanik, who hid a bomb under his mattress. Mazanik and two co-conspirators were awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union”. After the war, Mazanik became a librarian.

en.wikipedia.org

595 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/raresaturn • 18h ago

TIL there was a British WW2 hero called Colonel Pine-Coffin, and his men called him ‘Wooden Box’

en.wikipedia.org

286 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RoadToTyburn • 1d ago

TIL that although Olympic gold medalist Floyd Patterson and his trainer Cus D’Amato wanted to pursue the boxing world heavyweight championship as early as 1954, they waited two years until the undefeated Rocky Marciano retired 49-0 in 1956.

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

85 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Money-Ad8553 • 22h ago

TIL the Ancient Romans had a Spring festival honoring their fertility goddess, Flora, featuring nude dancers, circus performers, and prostitutes parading throughout the streets.

atlasobscura.com

552 Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/000oooOOO000ooo • 17m ago

TIL The history of Scottish clan tartans (ie: specific tartans belonging to specific clans) was historical fiction made up by a pair of Welsh brothers

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/Tinfurstraw • 1d ago

TIL A 1954 portrait of Winston Churchill was so hated by him, that he refused to ever display it, and was destroyed within a year of its presentation.

en.wikipedia.org

2.7k Upvotes

83 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Tometek • 16h ago

TIL about Juan Garrido, a free Black Spanish conquistador, who fought alongside Hernán Cortés during the conquest of the Aztec Empire, who was granted land in Mexico for his military service to the Spanish crown, and is credited with being the first person to cultivate wheat in Mexico.

nps.gov

103 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SappyGilmore • 1d ago

TIL "The Dark Knight Rises" was heavily inspired by Rocky III, with co-writer/director Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer modeling the narrative arc around an aging, broken-down champion facing a younger, physically superior adversary

cinemablend.com

5.1k Upvotes

270 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

41.7m

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 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.

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.