Let’s give a farewell to all those sleepless nights at school, sweaty exams, and never-ending misery that permeated the greatest part of our early adulthood, because there’s another side of the coin called the power of knowledge. And we’re talking bits of wisdom that didn’t find a place in textbooks but rather gave us a whole new way of learning new things.
Welcome to r/TIL—the internet’s homage to the continuous curiosity we carry through life, picking up all the interesting segments on the way. So get ready to soak in a new batch of hand-picked factoids below, and be sure to check out our previous posts on things people just learned here, here, and here.
#21
TIL as a young boy Yuri Gagarin (first man in space) had his village occupied by nazis, his family forced to work while living in a 3 by 3 meter mud hut for 21 months, saw his little brother being hanged (but saved by his parents) and his two older siblings deported for slave labor (who escaped).
265points
#22
TIL that the Amazon River was named after the conquistador Francisco de Orellana was defeated by a few tribes of women, thus naming it after the warrior women of Greek legend.
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261points
#23
TIL In 2007, a local Japanese railway station “hired” a cat named Tama as an official, helping the local economy bring in over 1 billion yen during her service. When she died 8 years later, thousands of people came to her funeral.
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250points
#24
TIL Caffeine is the coffee plant's natural defense mechanism. It leaches into the surrounding soil as leaves from the plant drop and are decomposed into the soil. Since caffeine is toxic to other plants, it prevents other plants from growing around the coffee plant and competing for sunlight.
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243points
#25
TIL that in 2019, Pope Francis received a bottle of Oban malt whiskey while visiting Scottish priests, and declared it to be 'the real holy water'. The BBC captured the footage for a documentary, which was censored by the Vatican.
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240points
#26
TIL - Mozart has a pet starling (bird) which could sing part of his piano concerto in G Major. He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously, which had not yet been performed in public
234points
#27
TIL during the Golden Age of Piracy, women sometimes became pirates by disguising themselves as men in an effort to take advantage of freedom and rights that men could only enjoy. Anne and Mary were two famous female pirates of that time who fell in love with each others' disguised manly appearance!
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231points
#28
TIL that a breed of wool dogs existed on the pacific northwest coast. Indigenous people would keep the dogs isolated on small islands to prevent inter breeding with hunting dogs. The wool dogs were cared for and feed a rich diet of seafood to produce strong yarn to make blankets from.
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219points
#29
TIL “The road not taken” by Robert Frost, was actually written to mock an indecisive friend and intended to inspire no one.
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215points
#30
TIL when Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs first opened in 1916, the owner hired people to dress as doctors and eat hot dogs outside his shop, to convince people his hot dogs were healthy.
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204points
#31
TIL measles gives your immune system 'amnesia.' Exposure to measles leaves the victim with a strong response to the measles virus, but an increased vulnerability to all other pathogens.
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202points
#32
TIL the eye sockets of the Moai statues in Easter Island used to have eyes made of coral
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201points
#33
TIL:During a SAS special operation against Nazi forces in Italy, using a force including Italians, a Scottish bagpiper volunteered to join the attack so that the Nazi's would think it was solely a British operation and not attack the locals
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200points
#34
TIL that Brazil was a monarchy until Crown Princess Isabel signed a law emancipating all slaves in Brazil in 1888. This was unpopular among the rich plantation owners and the imperial family was deposed in a military coup
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199points
#35
TIL Louis Vuitton burn any excess stock at the end of each year to main exclusivity, theft and avoid discount prices
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193points
#36
TIL Texas didn’t have safety regulations on natural gas until after a school blew up and killed hundreds of children. Nobody was held accountable, but they passed strict regulations afterwards. It was so bad that even Hitler sent a letter of condolence.
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187points
#37
TIL that monkeys in Japan learned to wash sweet potatoes in fresh water to clean them. They later switched to washing sweet potatoes in salt water. It is theorized that this is because they like the salty taste more than plain potatoes.
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187points
#38
TIL That in 1948 the Idaho Department of Fish and Game used surplus parachutes from WWII to drop threatened beavers into a nearby protected area. After some careful calibrations, 76 beavers made the skydive and all but one survived the drop.
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183points
#39
TIL that beer bottles are brown as it blocks out the sun's rays and helps preserve the taste. A shortage of brown glass after the Second World War meant higher quality beer makers chose green to distinguish themselves from the companies using clear glass.
177points
#40
TIL there are 23 floating-year-round boat schools in Bangladesh due to constant flooding in the country. Starting in 2002, these schools ensure year-round education in a country where heavy monsoon rains can submerge 70% of the land mass under water.
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176points
