Curiosities,Interesting FactsAUG 2, 2025

50 Delightfully Weird Facts About The World That People Learned This July

Evelina Šiukšterytė, Justinas Keturka, Robyn Smith and Rugilė Žemaitytė

Stephen King is well-known for writing some of the best horror novels of all time. As expected, a lot goes into King's creative process. He's previously said that he listens to music while writing. But if you think his go-to soundtracks are creepy, there's a plot twist...

King has admitted that he actually loves disco or techno playing in the background while he works. He also revealed that one song almost cost him his marriage... The author reportedly played Lou Bega's Mambo No.5 so many times while penning 11/22/63 that his wife threatened to throw in the towel if she heard it one more time.

That's just one of the interesting things netizens confessed to only learning this past July. And there were many. Bored Panda has put together the ultimate list of "Today I Learned" facts for you to scroll through while you should be doing something else. Don't forget to upvote your favorites, and let us know in the comments below what interesting tidbits you learned last month!

#1

50 Delightfully Weird Facts About The World That People Learned This July

TIL a stray dog followed Dion Leonard, who was running in a week-long ultramarathon in the Gobi Desert, for 77 miles of the 155-mile race. At night the dog even started to join him in his tent. He named her Gobi, & after the race, he crowdfunded the £5K needed to bring her back to Scotland with him.

tyrion2024, findinggobi

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166points

Not sure about you, but we love burrowing down an interesting and deep rabbit hole. And often, Today I Learned listicles are the perfect prompt to get us digging. Even a short one or two-liner fact can open a door to a larger story, sparking our curiosity and encouraging us to wonder a little, or a lot, more.

Many of the TIL facts on this list sent us searching for more context, background, or related facts. And next thing you know, it's 1am and you're still reading about the stray dog that followed a man during marathon, and found a happy ending.

#2

TIL: Browser the librarian cat outlived the city councilor that tried to evict him from his position.

VagrantWaters, Frozenwolf13

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155points

#3

TIL that Australia has forced gambling companies to display slogans in their ads like “You win some. You lose more” and “What's gambling really costing you?” instead of the standard “Gamble Responsibly”.

RareXG, Michał Parzuchowski

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129points

The extreme runner has actually written a book about the dog he met while running the 4 Desert Race in the Tian Shan mountain range in China. Gobi, the chihuahua appeared at Dion Leonard's side. The little dog stuck around for each step of the gruelling, seven-day, 250-kilometer route.

Leonard could have left Gobi at the finishing line but decided not to. Instead, he launched a crowdfunding campaign to take his new best friend back home to Edinburgh, Scotland.

#4

TIL that in 2020, a teenage boy was playing video games with an online friend when he began having a seizure. Despite being over 5,000 miles away, his friend managed to alert the emergency services in his area, saving his life.

Sebastianlim, JESHOOTS.COM

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123points

#5

TIL: Some farmers in Bangladesh have switched to raising ducks instead of chickens, because during catastrophic floods, ducks float.

Serious-Hearing-9661, Jean-Paul Wettstein

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119points

#6

TIL Female frogs fake death to avoid mating with male frogs they don’t find attractive.

GoinThruTheBigD, Vania Medina

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110points

"Basically on day two she decided to run with me on one of the stages, which was around 25-30 kilometers over the Tian Shan mountain range," the runner told the BBC. "She'd actually been with us the day before running through one of the largest sand dunes in China, so she was well-versed in running with all the competitors there, but on day two she decided to stick with me.

Leonard added that the dog would run ahead of him and wait for 20 or 30 meters down the road, waiting for him to catch up with her... Talk about a master motivator. "She's such a small dog but had a massive heart," he said at the time.

#7

TIL in 2013 McDonald's gave Charles Ramsey free food for a year after he helped rescue 3 women, who had been held hostage for years, while carrying a "half-eaten Big Mac." In addition, 14 local Ohio restaurants also gave Ramsey free burgers for life.

tyrion2024, news5cleveland

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107points

#8

TIL Simpsons creator Matt Groening was born to Homer and Marge Groening (neé Wiggum) and two of his siblings are called Maggie and Lisa. His grandfather is Abram A. Groening.

TypicallyThomas

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100points

#9

TIL while suffering dementia near the end of her life, Harriet Beecher Stowe re-wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin nearly word-for-word believing it was a new book.

alphabeticdisorder, Hammatt Billfggccxxxxings

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94points

I Heart Dogs reports that at night, while other competitors rested in their tents, Gobi would follow Dion into his tent and sleep by his side.

"Dion realized that this little dog had become more than just a stray running alongside him—she had become his companion," reads the site. "He made the decision to care for her, providing her with food and water from his own limited supply, despite the risk to his own performance in the race."

#10

TIL that Norway, after gaining independence from Sweden in 1905, offered the throne to Prince Carl of Denmark - but he refused to accept unless the people voted for a monarchy over a republic. 79% said yes, and he became King Haakon VII, the only known king ever to be elected by popular vote.

Upstairs_Drive_5602, Library of Congress's

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87points

#11

TIL that Heath Ledger, in 2007, had refused to host the Oscars due to a request that he make explicit fun of the relationship he portrayed with Jake Gyllenhall in the movie "Brokeback Mountain".

Maharajahn

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84points

#12

TIL Columbo's signature catchphrase "Just one more thing" originated because a scene was too short, and the writers didn't want to retype the script on a typewriter, so they just had him return and add the line at the end as if he'd forgotten something.

LookAtThatBacon

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75points

After quite a mission to get Gobi to his hometown, the doggo finally made it. The process took five months of waiting and preparation, including quarantine.

"Gobi lives a happy life in her forever home, surrounded by love and care," reports IHeartDogs.com. "She went from being a stray dog in the harsh Gobi Desert to a cherished member of Dion’s family."

#13

TIL a man escaped from a federal prison in Illinois after jumping over two 15 foot fences only to turn himself in to the FBI 4 days later to show them his desalination invention.

No-Environment6103:

“He reportedly did this so he could draw attention to his invention, a water desalination process that would enable mankind to purify water at a reasonable cost”.

puzdawg, Emiliano Bar

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73points

#14

TIL that Stephen King was so obsessed with Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 that his wife threatened to divorce him over it.

DangerNoodle1993, Lou Bega Official

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72points

#15

TIL that ravens in the wild play with wolf puppies. In the wholesome way, not the 'play with your food' way.

Osato, Michael Quinton

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70points

#16

TIL Boeing once filled an airplane with potatoes to test its in-flight Wi-Fi because potatoes mimic the way humans absorb and reflect wireless signals.

DJDeets, Marco Antonio Victorino

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69points

#17

TIL that in the 1980s East Germany tried to resolve a major coffee shortage by building coffee-production infrastructure in Vietnam, its close ally. By the time any coffee was harvested, East Germany had ceased to exist. Meanwhile, today Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world.

boulevardofdef, Caio

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68points

#18

TIL the Calibri font caused the Pakistani Prime Minister to be disqualified from office in 2017. Forged documents about the PM's income that claimed to be from 2006 used the font, but the font was not publicly released until 2007.

Ok_Application_5402

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66points

#19

TIL People with depression use language differently. They use significantly more first person singular pronouns – such as “me”, “myself” and “I”. Researchers have reported that pronouns are actually more reliable in identifying depression than negative emotion words.

explaingo, Dmitry Schemelev

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65points

#20

TIL studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25x more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17x more likely to create visual art, 12x more likely to write poetry, and 4x more likely to be a musician.

tyrion2024, A. C.

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64points

50 Delightfully Weird Facts About The World That People Learned This July

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Poll Question

After reading these unusual facts from July, how likely are you to look for more 'Today I Learned' content?

Poll Question

After reading these unusual facts from July, how likely are you to look for more 'Today I Learned' content?