50 Intriguing “Today I Learned” Facts That You Probably Didn’t Learn In School (New Facts)

TIL: Many choking deaths happen in bathrooms. It turns out that people who start choking often feel embarrassed and rush to the bathroom for privacy, only to end up dying alone, often next to a toilet.

TIL frankincense and myrrh are the dried sap of trees, also known as resin.

TIL when Greece won its independence in 1822, Athens was reduced to a small village of 4,000 inhabitants that had faded into irrelevance over centuries. It was selected as the capital for historical and sentimental reasons. The city is now the largest in Greece with over 3 million inhabitants

TIL America had over 50,000 pay toilets in 1970 but by 1980, there were almost none. Four teenagers formed the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America. Chicago became the first major American city to ban pay toilets altogether in March of 1973.

TIL that the "seductive nature" of the Green M&M is a reference to an urban legend during the 1970s that green M&Ms were aphrodisiacs.

TIL about 'The Campaign for North Africa' - a board game published in 1978 that is estimated to take 62 days to play. The game includes 1,600 counters and the level of detail is such that Italian troops require additional water supplies in order to boil pasta.

TIl that citizens of Monaco are banned from gambling or working at casinos. The famed Monte Carlo Casino is strictly for foreigners only.

TIL that the Milky Way Galaxy is being pulled toward a mysterious area in space called "The Great Attractor" at about 6000km/s. Whatever it is, we can't see it from Earth because it's obscured the hub of our galaxy.

TIL the director of Captain Phillips didn't allow Tom Hanks and Actors playing somali pirates to meet before filming the movie, so that the pirates can terroize Tom and his crew and create a realistic tension and hostility between them.

TIL Emperor Justinian II (685-695 and 705-711) was overthrown in a rebellion and had his nose cut off to prevent him from ever ruling again. However, he managed to return to power in 705 with a prosthetic gold nose and took his revenge on those who had deposed him.

TIL the longest prison sentence ever given was 141,078 years, given to a Thai woman in 1989. She was released 4 years later.

TIL that the Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 was intended to be the first craft to land on the moon. It missed the moon by nearly 6000km and ended up becoming the first spacecraft to enter orbit around the sun between the orbits of Earth and Mars.

TIL It would take 18 months to walk the great wall of China.

TIL Liechtenstein has been accidentally attacked or invaded by Switzerland 5 times since 1968. In 1968, chairs were broken by artillery. In 1976 soldiers were offered drinks by the locals. In 1985 a forest fire was started. Switzerland apologised or compensated for the damage each time.

TIL that Thomas Cornell was convicted and sent to the gallows for the 1673 murder of his mother, due in part to "spectral evidence" presented by his uncle, who said her ghost paid him a visit and told him that Thomas did it.

TIL Prior to 1970 most Pistachios were dyed red!

TIL in the last years of his life, J.R.R Tolkien, a devout catholic, resisted the liturgical changes implemented after the Second Vatican Council, especially the use of English for the liturgy. He continued to make the responses in Latin, loudly, ignoring the rest of the congregation.

TIL that despite being commonly ranked as one of the worst Christmas films ever made, the 1985 film “Santa Claus: The Movie” is immensely popular in the UK. One of the film actors, John Lithgow, said in 2019 that he wishes he had a nickel for every Englishman who’s told him it's their favorite film.

TIL that in a survey of 500 law firm workers, over 50% confirmed that legal TV shows had influenced their career choice & 57% of those felt that the TV series that impacted them was a "realistic depiction of a legal career." 30% identified Suits as their show, 22% said Law and Order.

TIL - The severed head of Mata Hari was embalmed and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. In 2000, archivists discovered that it had disappeared.