r/todayilearned • u/blankblank • 3d ago

TIL a New Haven colonist was accused of bestiality in 1647 when a neighborhood sow gave birth to piglets that allegedly resembled him. Called "the most interesting buggery case" ever, it left an enduring mark in the history of capital punishment.

en.wikipedia.org

5.6k Upvotes

197 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Not_so_ghetto • 3d ago

TIL Minnesota’s has lost more than 50% of their moose populations since the mid-2000s, with a brain worm being one of the main factors leading to their deaths.

minnesotareformer.com

6.3k Upvotes

151 comments

r/todayilearned • u/pgc22bc • 2d ago

TIL: Jacques Cousteau's Calypso had a 1000 litre stainless steel wine tank.

youtu.be

112 Upvotes

45 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LeGoatMaster • 3d ago

TIL NBC's Today Show used to have a chimpanzee mascot named J. Fred Muggs, who is still alive today at 73 years old.

en.wikipedia.org

931 Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/illogictc • 2d ago

TIL That even though Rob Zombie appeared as a character in Twisted Metal 4 in addition to contributing music and a music video to it, he didn't voice his own character. Jon St. John of Duke Nukem fame did.

en.wikipedia.org

394 Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ChooChoo9321 • 2d ago

TIL about Giuseppe Garibaldi II, the Australian-born grandson of the Italian unifier who also fought in the Mexican Revolution and served under Pancho Villa.

en.wikipedia.org

61 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ModenaR • 3d ago

TIL that F1 drivers lose approximately 2 to 3 kilograms of their weight during a race due to sweating

racingnews365.com

12.6k Upvotes

326 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TriviaDuchess • 3d ago

TIL The 2001 film The Cat’s Meow, starring Kirsten Dunst, dramatizes the scandalous 1924 death of film mogul Thomas Ince on William Randolph Hearst’s yacht. With Charlie Chaplin allegedly flirting with Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies, many believe Hearst meant to shoot Chaplin—but hit Ince instead.

en.wikipedia.org

912 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flaxmoore • 2d ago

TIL that the last burial in Tombstone's famous Boothill cemetery (resting place of the dead from the OK Corral) wasn’t until 1953, of a man whose ashes were sent from California COD.

findagrave.com

215 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hoops867 • 3d ago

TIL gold can be very toxic if it's in a biologically active compound. A common use for gold salts is rheumatoid arthritis.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

1.7k Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DarkSideInRainbows • 3d ago

TIL in March 2000, Conan O'Brien did a remote on his Late Night show exploring an advertising firm. While taping it, he met and fell in love with Liza Powel, an employee at the firm. They have been married since 2002 and have two children.

en.wikipedia.org

5.9k Upvotes

201 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 3d ago

TIL that David Koresh of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas got the idea for his name from one of his lovers, Lois Roden. She checked out a book from the Waco McLennan County Public Library in the 1980s on Cyrus Teed, an early 1900s cult leader from Southwest Florida who went by the name "Koresh".

abcactionnews.com

471 Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BloxyTiger • 3d ago

TIL that John Lennon wanted Hitler to appear on the Sgt. Pepper album cover, however he was removed from the background and did not make the final product.

theartnewspaper.com

4.8k Upvotes

256 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Proboyhuh • 3d ago

TIL butterflies remember being caterpillars Studies suggest they retain some memories even after liquefying themselves during metamorphosis.

en.wikipedia.org

10.8k Upvotes

174 comments

r/todayilearned • u/al_fletcher • 2d ago

TIL that while production of "The Big Sleep" had concluded during World War II, scenes with Lauren Bacall were added in postwar reshoots following her marriage to the film's star Humphrey Bogart, with the hopes of enhancing the movie with their on-screen chemistry.

catalog.afi.com

77 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DiceMan135 • 3d ago

TIL of Winston Churchill, an American writer who was massively popular in the 1900s. He was actually more well known than the British Churchill during that time, and they arranged to meet and agreed that the British Churchill would go by Winston Spencer-Churchill in his own writings.

en.wikipedia.org

1.1k Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/yooolka • 3d ago

TIL that the iconic birdlike mask of plague doctors in the 17th century was designed to hold herbs and perfumes, which kept away bad smells, such as the smell of decaying bodies. Doctors believed the herbs would counter the "evil" smells of the plague and prevent them from becoming infected.

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

67 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Same_Huckleberry_122 • 3d ago

TIL on the morning of February 10, 1970, a powder snow avalanche travelling at 120 mph crashed into Val d'Isère, an Alpine ski resort. This French resort was run by a non-profit youth organisation and mostly drew younger skiers. 39 adolescent skiers and three trail personnel were killed that day.

history.com

281 Upvotes

3 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TriviaDuchess • 3d ago

TIL: Some armadillos, like the nine-banded kind, mate in summer, but the egg delays implanting in the uterus. This pause—called embryonic diapause—lets development resume months later so babies are born in spring when survival odds are better.

en.wikipedia.org

378 Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 4d ago

TIL that during the filming of Planet of the Apes in 1967, the cast self-segregated. Lead actor Charlton Heston said that the "chimpanzees ate with the chimpanzees, the gorillas ate with the gorillas, the orangutans ate with the orangutans, and the humans would eat off by themselves."

en.wikipedia.org

40.9k Upvotes

572 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MichaelGMorgillo • 4d ago

TIL that US tried to get Karl Dönitz, the man that succeeded Hilter, sentenced for War Crimes for ordering the German Navy not to rescue Allied survivors, only for it to be found out that order was created because the US Airforce attacked German Naval vessels trying to rescue Allied survivors.

en.wikipedia.org

16.3k Upvotes

399 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SteO153 • 3d ago

TIL about Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands. The islands, which are uninhabited, are among the most remote places on Earth, they can be reached only by sea, which from Australia takes two weeks

en.wikipedia.org

828 Upvotes

69 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 4d ago

TIL there's no rabies in Australia

agriculture.gov.au

4.8k Upvotes

552 comments

r/todayilearned • u/exophades • 3d ago

TIL that until 2011, MS-DOS was still used by the U.S. Navy food service management system

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

192 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JEBV • 3d ago

TIL in 1973 and 1987, two juvenile Bald Eagles were found having flown to Ireland.

en.wikipedia.org

520 Upvotes

33 comments

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Frequent TILs Repost List

As of January 2025

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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