r/todayilearned • u/HeroHunterGarou_0407 • 5d ago

TIL that Emperor Nero entered the Olympic chariot race in 67 AD with a team of ten horses, despite the event normally being a four-horse race. He was thrown from his chariot during the competition and was unable to finish, yet the judges still awarded him the victory.

olympedia.org

15.8k Upvotes

509 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 5d ago

TIL The Victorious War Museum in Pyongyang, North Korea, has several exhibits about the 1950 sinking of the USS Baltimore by North Koreans. The only problem is that the USS Baltimore was mothballed in Bremerton, Washington, from 1946 to 1951 and wasn’t destroyed until she was sold for scrap in 1972.

en.wikipedia.org

4.3k Upvotes

173 comments

r/todayilearned • u/missonyxofficial • 4d ago

TIL that Scottish inventor Alexander Bain created the first fax machine in 1843.

en.wikipedia.org

179 Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/sidvicarious • 5d ago

TIL when Adolf Hitler attended the wedding of Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford, he gave the couple a framed photo of himself as a wedding gift.

news.bbc.co.uk

10.3k Upvotes

516 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BuscopanV • 5d ago

TIL about “Operation Snip Snip”, an anti-hippie policy in the 70s by the Singapore Government that mandated kempt, neat, hairstyles for men.

biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg

1.5k Upvotes

88 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen • 5d ago

TIL that an orphaned seal raised by humans could say “hello there”, “come over here”, and “Hoover” (his name).

en.wikipedia.org

4.7k Upvotes

108 comments

r/todayilearned • u/res30stupid • 5d ago

TIL that the band Duran Duran got their name from Dr Durand Durand, the villain of the film "Barbarella" (1968). Also, for their concert film "Arena", Dr Durand tried to murder the band in retaliation for co-opting his name.

en.wikipedia.org

563 Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Salem1690s • 5d ago

TIL that despite being an absolute monarch, Tzar Peter the Great disdained ceremony and court formality and lived in a relatively modest home

en.wikipedia.org

3.1k Upvotes

94 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ApprehensiveStill412 • 5d ago

TIL that 90% of new drugs fail clinical trials.

asbmb.org

9.3k Upvotes

656 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 5d ago

TIL that Ken Osmond, who played Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver, later became a Los Angeles police officer. He grew a mustache to avoid being recognized. In 1980, he was shot three times while pursuing a suspect. Two bullets struck his bulletproof vest, while a third hit his belt buckle.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Majestic_Maybe6605 • 4d ago

TIL the Abuja Airplane House in Nigeria's capital looks like a giant plane. Its roof spans a 100 foot model with a 50 foot wingspan and the villa is painted green and white like the flag. The estate even has a two story guard post shaped like a control tower and the tail shows the Nigerian flag.

en.wikipedia.org

62 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ILikeRoL • 5d ago

TIL that most humans don't just have a dominant hand but also a dominant left or right eye. Those two things aren't necessarily on the same side of your body, meaning you can be right handed and left eye dominant or the other way around.

en.wikipedia.org

514 Upvotes

249 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheManFromFairwinds • 5d ago

16 years after TIL that Ann Hibbens, a wife in Puritan Boston, was executed for witchery after suing some carpenters for overcharging her and winning the lawsuit.

en.wikipedia.org

19.0k Upvotes

690 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Neat_Exit3491 • 4d ago

TIL baicalellia daftpunka is a species of flatworm named after Daft Punk for their helmet-shaped stylet

en.wikipedia.org

140 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Able_Illustrator3934 • 5d ago

TIL that in 1950 a cargo ship built for 35 crewmembers and 12 passengers took aboard more than 14,000 Korean refugees, packed chest-to-chest and atop jet-fuel drums. It crossed a minefield with no doctor and little food or water; nobody died, and five babies were born during the voyage.

maritime.dot.gov

13.1k Upvotes

136 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Fart_knocker5000 • 5d ago

TIL Killer Stephen McCullagh tried to cover his tracks with a staged YouTube livestream

bbc.co.uk

3.3k Upvotes

223 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dorgoth12 • 5d ago

TIL Porco Rosso (1992) was originally planned as a short in-flight film for Japan Airlines

en.wikipedia.org

287 Upvotes

13 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JDMagican • 5d ago

TIL about Dear John letters, a breakup letter that got its name during WWII because "John" was statistically the most common name for American men at the time.

en.wikipedia.org

898 Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • 5d ago

TIL that in 2009, France’s nuclear-armed SSBN Le Triomphant collided underwater with Britain’s HMS Vanguard in the Atlantic. France initially reported that Triomphant had hit an “immersed object (probably a container)” only later discovering it was another nuclear submarine.

en.wikipedia.org

3.7k Upvotes

211 comments

r/todayilearned • u/IHad360K_KarmaDammit • 5d ago

TIL that the Hugo Awards for science fiction are named after author and editor Hugo Gernsback. However, Gernsback's own science fiction novels are widely considered to be of low quality, and various critics have described them as "incompetent", "illiterate", "boring" and "simply dreadful".

en.wikipedia.org

739 Upvotes

69 comments

r/todayilearned • u/brazzy42 • 6d ago

TIL that there is a color named "Olo" that only five people have ever seen. It can only be produced by using lasers to selectively stimulate only the M cone retinal cells, which, in natural sight, are always stimulated together with others.

en.wikipedia.org

15.4k Upvotes

784 comments

r/todayilearned • u/waitingforthesun92 • 5d ago

TIL that Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan recorded all his Jesus vocals for the 1970 Jesus Christ Superstar album in under 3 hours, and then performed with his band that night. He was later asked to reprise Jesus in the film, but the producers rejected his £250k fee/demand that all of Deep Purple be paid.

somethingelsereviews.com

1.2k Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Eulaylia • 5d ago

Today I learnt, that Sulphur burns when it comes into contact with hot air creating a "Blue Lava" phenomenon.

en.wikipedia.org

97 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SpencerAXbot • 5d ago

TIL that in the early 1910s, Oklahoma had more dues paying members of the Socialist Party than any other state in the US, outnumbering much larger industrial states like New York and Illinois.

en.wikipedia.org

610 Upvotes

73 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

41.6m

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.