‘Today I Learned’: 50 Interesting Facts People Didn’t Learn At School (New Pics)

Whenever we sleep in unfamiliar surroundings, only half your brain is getting a good night's rest while the other half stands guard.

Babies can acquire sign language just like they would acquire any language and follows the same patterns as vocal language acquisition, where deaf infants (if exposed to sign language early) start to "babble" 1-2 sign sentences around the time their hearing counterparts start to "babble" words.

Mexico was the only country to protest against the German annexation of Austria

There is a clear ceramic made out of Aluminum that is stronger than bulletproof glass, and has a higher melting point than stainless steel. It is called ALON, and is used for armored windows

The USS New York is a ship in the US Navy forged partially from steel that was salvaged from the World Trade Center after it was destroyed in 9/11. The ship's motto is "Strength forged through sacrifice. Never forget."

Oxford University is so old that they don’t even know when exactly it was founded and that the earliest evidence of teaching there goes back to 1096.

Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice had a pet snake named Emily Spinach. She liked to carry it around the White House in her purse and take it out at unexpected moments.

Eight years after JFK’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy avoided the public unveiling of their White House portraits, but the Nixons graciously agreed to a secret, private tour for her and her kids. It was her only return visit

Aquariums aren't allowed to pay to get animals from other aquariums as it encourages poaching. So there is a barter system in place where they swap animals. A New England aquarium traded a dozen penguins for 800 mackerel and their basic unit of trade is the jellyfish

Payless once opened a fake luxury store called "Palessi" and invited influencers to see how much people would pay for $20 shoes. Top offer: $640. A markup of 1800%.

Ed Sheeran granted a dying fans wish, which was to hear him sing, by singing to her minutes before she died

Poncke Princen, a Dutch anti-Nazi fighter who was later sent to Indonesia to suppress an anticolonial rebellion. Princen, after witnessing Dutch war crimes, defected to fight with the guerrillas in 1948. He later helped expose the anticommunist massacres of Indonesian dictator Suharto.

Surya Bonaly, a French figure skater, landed a backflip on one blade in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. This was banned in 1976 and Bonaly did it despite knowing that it would negatively affect her score. It has not been repeated in the Olympics since.

Duct tape was invented by Vesta Stoudt, a factor worker during WWII and the mother of 2 sons in the Navy. When her supervisors at the factory dismissed her idea for a stronger cloth-based tape, she wrote a letter to President FDR, who then ordered Johnson&Johnson to manufacture her idea.

The original drummer of The Offspring became a gynecologist, and during the initial stages of a malpractice trial, he performed CPR and used a defibrillator to save the life of a potential juror. The judge had to declare a mistrial because the rest of the jury would likely be biased in his favor

After denied rights to use "Another One Bites the Dust" for Rocky III, Sylvester Stallone hired Survivor to write an original song instead, which turned out to be "Eye Of The Tiger"

The skeletons of medieval English archers were deformed from years of archery. The high poundage of war bows, coupled with years of training in their use from a young age, led to skeletons having over-developed shoulder and arm bones to compensate for the growth of muscle around those areas.

An ancient Roman oracle once prophesied that "Caligula had no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae". After becoming emperor, Caligula ordered ships to construct the largest pontoon bridge in history, and rode his horse across the Bay of Baiae

Neil Armstrong's heart rate spiked to 150+ when NASA turned the control over to him for the moon landing.

Before proposing to Emma Wedgwood, Charles Darwin made a list of marriage pros and cons. Pros- better than a dog, charms of music & female chit-chat. Cons - Anxiety & responsibility, less money for books.