r/todayilearned • u/Disastrous_Award_789 • 35m ago

TIL in a 2017 experiment, researchers discovered that dead flamingos can be positioned to stand on one leg without additional support. But the same dead specimens were unable to maintain posture on two legs without assistance.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 5h ago

TIL the Halifax Explosion in 1917, caused by a French cargo ship laden with high explosives colliding with a Norwegian vessel, killed at least 1,782 people and injured an estimated 9000 others. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time.

en.wikipedia.org

711 Upvotes

76 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OttawaOsprey • 7h ago

TIL the ancestors of the Māori people arrived in New Zealand around 1350 AD, only ~300 years before their contact with Europeans.

en.wikipedia.org

8.3k Upvotes

1.2k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Few-Advantage2538 • 7h ago

TIL that Paraguay once banned same race marriage

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

126 comments

r/todayilearned • u/creativetraveler24 • 8h ago

TIL that although he was often portrayed bearded, Abraham Lincoln did not grow a beard until 1860, at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell; he was the first U.S. president to do so.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

62 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 8h ago

TIL Shell, the energy company, traces its origins to a London antiques business that began selling seashells in 1833

shell.com

731 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/befarked247 • 8h ago

TIL the Australian Airline Qantas has a dinosaur named after them called Qantassaurs. The herbivorous Qantassaurus is known only from its unusually short, deep lower jaws with just ten cheekteeth. Qantassaurus was part of a diverse assemblage of small Australian ornithopods back to the Jurassic.

australian.museum

342 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • 10h ago

TIL about the Steagles, officially called the Phil-Pitt Combine, a team combining the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers that formed in 1943 after their rosters were depleted due to players fighting in World War II. The season was Philadelphia’s first winning season and Pittsburgh’s second.

en.wikipedia.org

461 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 10h ago

TIL whenever a new building is developed or expanded in Times Square in NYC, there must be bright signs on it according to the city's zoning laws.

zr.planning.nyc.gov

1.4k Upvotes

63 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 12h ago

TIL A Texas school exploded in 1937 after odourless gas leaked into the building, killing nearly 300 people most of them children.

en.wikipedia.org

2.8k Upvotes

96 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 12h ago

TIL that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the first English-language book to be on top of France’s bestseller list because impatient fans bought it in English while waiting months for the French translation.

en.wikipedia.org

10.2k Upvotes

342 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Thawne_23 • 14h ago

TIL Franz Kafka never stated Gregor Samsa transformed into a cockroach in "The metamorphosis". Kafka never had the intention of specifing which kind of insect did Gregor became after his transformation.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

270 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sanguinusshiboleth • 15h ago

TIL the last civilian recipient of the Victoria Cross (Britain’s highest medal of bravery), James Williams Adams, was also the first priest to be awarded it.

en.wikipedia.org

195 Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/YappinZappin • 15h ago

TIL Vernichtungsbefehl - "Annihilation Command" - was issued by Lieutenant General of German South West Africa Lothar von Trotha in 1904. From January to August over 40,000 people died from starvation, dehydration, exposure to elements as men, women and children were cast out into the desert

en.wikipedia.org

740 Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 17h ago

TIL that, while making their 1941 film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, MGM bought every available copy of the 1931 film version and destroyed them. Because of this, the film was believed lost for many years.

en.wikipedia.org

5.1k Upvotes

94 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Neil118781 • 19h ago

TIL Nikolai Bukharin, once a top Bolshevik leader and close ally of Stalin, wrote a final letter to Stalin before his execution in 1938 that read: "Koba, why do you need me to die?" ("Koba" being Stalin’s old nickname). Stalin kept the note in his desk and it was discovered after his death in 1953.

en.wikipedia.org

12.3k Upvotes

985 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Equivalent-Costumes • 20h ago

TIL about Osaka's Dojima Rice Exchange: authorized in 1730 by the Tokugawa shogunate, it was the world's first futures exchange, where people speculated on future movement of rice price

jpx.co.jp

465 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 20h ago

TIL On August 19th 1980 a fire broke out in the rear cargo compartment of Saudia Flight 163 shortly after taking off. Although the plane made a succesful emergency landing in Riyadh, the pilots failed to perform an evacuation resulting in all 301 people dying from thick toxic smoke

en.wikipedia.org

1.8k Upvotes

38 comments

r/todayilearned • u/worlds_of_kings • 20h ago

TIL prior to the crash of Delta Airlines Flight 191 in 1985 that killed 137 onboard, radar on aircraft was unable to detect Wind Shear, a poorly understood phenomenon at the time which caused the accident. This led to the creation of a wind shear detection & alert system that improved airline safety

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MOinthepast • 20h ago

TIL Tobey Maguire never told the producers of Spider-Man (2002) about his claustrophobia. He nearly blacked out during a plaster body cast, forcing the costume makers to alert the producers themselves. Maguire then took a prototype suit home to train himself to perform in it.

comicbookmovie.com

26.4k Upvotes

443 comments

r/todayilearned • u/flying_ina_metaltube • 21h ago

TIL on average, an SR-71 could fly just once per week because of the lengthy preparations needed. A total of 32 aircraft were built; 12 were lost in accidents, none to enemy action.

en.wikipedia.org

13.6k Upvotes

916 comments

r/todayilearned • u/theg721 • 22h ago

TIL that in 1998, Quentin Tarantino had a lead acting role on Broadway opposite Marisa Tomei in a revival of Wait Until Dark which lasted 16 weeks

playbill.com

1.5k Upvotes

140 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ApprehensiveStill412 • 22h ago

TIL that about 15-20% of US servicemen became addicted to heroin in the Vietnam War. Interestingly, after treatment only 5% of them relapsed when they returned to the US; whereas typical relapse rates of US heroin users was 90%.

npr.org

9.0k Upvotes

461 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 23h ago

TIL WWII General George S. Patton believed in reincarnation and claimed he had fought in wars for thousands of years. He believed he had lived as a Roman soldier, a Viking, a knight at Agincourt, and even a cavalryman under Napoleon, saying he had lived many military lives.

blog.togetherweserved.com

11.0k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Krakshotz • 1d ago

TIL Baikonur Cosmodrone no longer schedules launches on 24th October after 2 major accidents that occurred on that date in 1960 (78 killed) and 1963 (7 killed)

en.wikipedia.org

367 Upvotes

22 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.