If you browse Reddit, the chances are you will end up on its powerhouse called Today I Learned. And it's not a powerhouse for no reason, trust me.
TIL is home to 27.3 million members who enjoy pumping their trivia muscle and coming to the subreddit to recharge their memory banks.
Created back in December 28, 2008, the community has become a destination for daily tidbits of knowledge and interesting facts. The best part, TIL is basically a never-ending stream of wisdom goodness, so if you ever have a spare moment to kill or simply need some cool things nobody knows to impress your date, TIL facts make for lightyears of scrolling. So in case you feel adventurous, more Today I Learned facts await here, here and here.
#21
TIL that a 4-year-old was arrested for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Little Dorothy Good spent 10 months chained in a prison cell after confessing to a local judge that she had a pet snake that could talk.
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215points
#22
TIL that in the 4th century CE, Roman bishop Acacius of Amida sold the all church's treasures to free 7000 Persian prisoners captured by the Romans during war. The Persian emperor was so impressed by the act that he ordered an end to Christian persecution throughout his empire.
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215points
#23
TIL that the crust of the Earth is so thin, that it makes up 1% of the earth's volume that contains all known life in the universe and can be compared with a peel of an apple.
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208points
#24
TIL F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen nearly bankrupted his Lotus team. They put a €50k bonus per point in his contract thinking they wouldn't score many, Kimi scored 390 in two years including 15 podiums and 2 race wins.
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208points
#25
TIL Cancun was founded by the Mexican government using computer models to find a nice spot for tourists.
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202points
#26
TIL Philadelphia Cream Cheese was invented in New York and has never been made in Philadelphia. Its name was part of a clever marketing strategy, because at the time (1880s) Philadelphia was known for its high quality dairy.
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202points
#27
TIL of the "Boring Billion". From roughly 1.8 billion BC to 0.8 billion BC, relatively nothing happened on earth. There was tectonic stability, a static climate, and hardly any biological evolution. It has been termed "The Dullest Time in Earth's History"
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201points
#28
TIL that Sesame Street was initially banned in several states, such as Mississippi, for casting black and hispanic actors.
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199points
#29
TIL Scooby Doo was designed by Iwao Takamoto, who first learned illustration from fellow prisoners in the Manzanar concentration camp for Japanese-Americans.
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193points
#30
TIL the IRS still operates largely on mainframe computers running 60 year old code.
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190points
#31
TIL of 'Truck Wages' or 'Company Scrip, where an employer will pay employees in company minted money that is only redeemable in company owned stores. It is referenced in the sea shanty 'Wellerman' and the last company to get sued for using it was Walmart Mexico.
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177points
#32
TIL of the Octomom case of 2009, where a single mom was implanted with 12 embryos and gave birth to 8 babies (octuplets). They are currently the longest surviving octuplets ever. Ultimately her fertility doctor had his license revoked.
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176points
#33
IL of Audie Murphy, an American soldier from World War II that earned every military combat med offered by the U.S Army, including the Medal of Honor at age 19. He also won medals from France and Belgium.
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176points
#34
TIL that since 2004 at least 18 have people died from contracting rabies after receiving organs from infected donors. Transplanted organs are not typically screened for rabies virus, which can incubate for up to a year or more before symptoms manifest, after which time it is nearly 100% fatal.
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175points
#35
TIL that there is a strong positive correlation between how fast someone walks and the population of the city that they're from. If a city is 10x larger than another, people will walk 24% faster on average.
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175points
#36
TIL that Aluminum was once more expensive than gold. It was a status symbol that emperor Napoleon III reserved a prized set of aluminum cutlery for special guests at banquets. Less favored guests used gold knives and forks.
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174points
#37
TIL that while impressed by his book "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", the UK's science academy couldn't publish Isaac Newton's book due to being nearly bankrupt from spending all of its money printing the "History of Fish". Thankfully, scientist Edmond Halley's funded the printing.
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169points
#38
TIL that in the years preceding the French Revolution, the price of bread went from costing about 50% of a laborer's daily wages to about 88% of their income.
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164points
#39
TIL in 1993, college basketball coach Bob Knight invented a fictitious player named Ivan Renko to expose disreputable basketball recruiting experts. Sure enough, the "experts" began listing Renko as a prospect and some even claimed to have footage of the nonexistent player.
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164points
#40
TIL that NASA was inspired by Fritz Lang's film, 'Frau im Mond', to use a countdown for rocket launches. NASA used the countdown to not only help technicians synchronise, but also found that announcing the countdown would build suspense for those watching at home.
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161points