Nowadays, you don't have to take a trip to the local library if you want to go on a fact-finding mission. You don't have to read a whole book, magazine, or even an Encyclopaeda Brittanica to learn something new. The internet is a never-ending treasure trove of trivia. From fascinating bite-size tidbits about science, to celebrities, history, and the plain weird and bizarre. The “Today I Learned” (TIL) page is a go-to corner of the internet, where a whopping 39 million people gather to satisfy their hunger for knowledge.
Bored Panda has picked the top cool and weird facts from the page to create the following captivating listicle. Whether you're wanting to impress your friends, needing something interesting to talk about on your next first date, itching to win trivia night or you just enjoy soaking in new information, you should find something useful here. Keep scrolling and don't forget to upvote your favorites.
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#21
TIL that in Romania in 1999, a man and a woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning while having sex in a car parked in a garage with the engine running and won the 1999 Darwin Award.
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33points
#22
TIL the US Navy had no idea Cher would be wearing a racy outfit when they agreed to let her film “If I Could Turn Back Time” on the battleship *Missouri*. They didn’t see her now-iconic fishnet bodysuit until filming started. The crew’s crazy reaction is genuine.
30points
#23
TIL Tommy Cooper was a Welsh magician/comedian whose shtick was "a clumsy magician messes up his tricks". He had a massive heart attack, collapsed and died on stage during a live broadcast, in front of 12 million viewers, with studio audience laughing at what they thought was just one of his acts.
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28points
#24
TIL Japan railway platforms saw a 84 percent decrease in s***ides at stations after they installed blue lights.
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28points
#25
TIL what we call a 9-to-5 workday, Chinese people have "996," which means they have to work from 9am to 9pm 6 days a week.
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28points
#26
TIL Keanu Reeves only says 380 words in the entirety of John Wick: Chapter 4, which has a runtime of 169 minutes.
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28points
#27
TIL that in 1835, Richard Lawrence attempted to assassinate President Andrew Jackson, marking the first such attempt on a sitting U.S. president. Lawrence's two pistols both misfired, allowing Jackson who was 67 at the time to respond by beating him with his cane until he was restrained.
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28points
#28
TIL there is no official "national identity card" in the United States. Most Americans use their driver’s license as a national identification
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27points
#29
TIL Early in his career actor Zero Mostel was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for suspected communist sympathies. During his testimony, Mostel refused to name names, made jokes, and challenged the committee's assertions.
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27points
#30
TIL of 'Joe Martin', a captive orangutan actor that starred in over 50 silent era films, and for years lived essentially as a free human, wearing clothes, having it's own keys to come and go, attending film premieres and trusted to work with many children. Eventually it attacked many people...
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25points
#31
TIL about Frederick Valentich, an Australian pilot who disappeared during a flight in 1978 after reporting an unidentified object following him and saying, 'It's not an aircraft.'
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24points
#32
TIL researchers studying nominative determinism found that orthopedic surgeons are more likely to have the surname "Limb" than is expected by chance (Limb, Limb, Limb, & Limb, 2015)
23points
#33
TIL: The US developed the chemical compound Cyanogen Chloride for use in WW2 against Japan. It is a highly toxic blood agent that could penetrate gas masks. Truman decided against using it and opted for the atom bomb. It is now listed in the Chemical Weapons Convention and has never been deployed.
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23points
#34
TIL that Thalidomide, the drug responsible for thousands of birth defects across Europe in the 1950s/60s, was developed by a doctor who had previously worked for the Nazis, experimenting on concentration camp victims
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23points
#35
TIL: There is a figure known as the "unluckiest man in Pompeii". In 2018, archaeologists uncovered his skeleton and a rock where his head should've been, he got struck by the rock and his skull was found in a tunnel a distance away.
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23points
#36
TIL until the 1980’s, US television stations would sign off at the end of the broadcasting day, and before they cut to static for the rest of the night, they would often play short clips of American landmarks and US military imagery in a patriotic montage accompanied by the star spangled banner.
22points
#37
TIL that nearly 0% of Indigenous Mexicans develop wisdom teeth, while practically 100% of Tasmanians do.
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22points
#38
TIL Max Planck, the father of quantum theory, considered his quantum hypothesis just a mathematical trick to get the right answer rather than a sizable discovery until Einstein interpreted his hypothesis realistically and used it to explain physical phenomena.
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21points
#39
TIL David Letterman once insulted Quentin Tarantino on his show, which made Tarantino call Letterman on the phone and threaten to come to NY to “kill” him. Letterman responded by offering to pay for his flight and have QT choose the method of battle. Tarantino agreed and chose “bats.”
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20points
#40
TIL: The federal government is by far the largest employer of veterans in the United States
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20points