45 Fascinating “Today I Learned” Posts That May Leave You Questioning Reality (New Facts)

TIL Warren Buffett's son Peter, at 19, received the only inheritance he'll ever be given for personal use: $90K worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock. It was understood that he should expect nothing more. It'd be worth $300m today, but he sold it back then to start his music career & doesn't regret it.

TIL that teen pregnancy rates in the US are less than a quarter what they were in the 90s!

TIL that American military pilot call signs--nicknames the pilots go by--are often based on mistakes the pilot made, and get assigned early in their career.

TIL that in Japan, more diapers are now sold for elderly people than for babies, reflecting the country’s aging population and shifting demographics.

TIL Mississippi refused to air Sesame Street in 1970 due to its mixed-race cast.

TIL of triathlete Lesley Paterson, who dedicated her race winnings to maintaining the film rights to one of her favorite books. She almost lost them in 2015 until competing and winning with a broken shoulder. It took 16 years and $200k, but she eventually made All Quiet on the Western Front (2022).

TIL that when Victor Hugo died in 1885, some Parisian brothels reportedly closed for a day to mourn his passing.

TIL that popes cannot be organ donors because their body becomes property of the church upon their death. This rule invalidated Pope Benedict’s organ donor card, which he had held since the 1970s.

TIL in 2019 a man died less than 12 hours after eating a hot fishcake that burned his throat, causing it to swell so much that he choked to death. The doctor who performed the autopsy said the symptoms were normally seen in people involved in house fires, caused by smoke inhalation.

TIL the habit of sitting on the toilet too long, even if one isn't straining, significantly increases the risk of hemorrhoids

TIL that in the 1790s, France had a network of signalling towers that could send messages by writing symbols using giant mechanical arms on towers. They could send complex messages across the entire country in ~1 hour. These were precursors to electric telegraphs.

TIL Steven Spielberg told movie stars that if they wanted to work with him, a prerequisite was that they gambled along with him by not taking any salary upfront and instead only taking backend compensation. He said "...if my film makes no money I get no money. They should be prepared to do the same"

TIL during a scene in The Shawshank Redemption in which a crow was to be fed a maggot, the American Humane Society objected against the idea of a live animal being k*lled for the scene meaning the team had to find and use a maggot that had died of natural causes.

TIL that in 2011, the Mexican ambassador in London complained to the BBC and demanded an apology from "Top Gear" presenter Richard Hammond, after Hammond called the Mexicans 'lazy, feckless, flatulent and overweight' on the show

TIL Matt Damon wrote the first draft of Good Will Hunting's first act as an assignment in a playwriting class during his fifth year at Harvard. The only scene that survived verbatim from that "40-some-odd-page document" was the scene where Damon's character & Robin Williams' character first meet.

TIL During the filming of The Godfather, Marlon Brando refused to memorize his lines, and would read them off cards attached anywhere from trees in the background to fellow actors.

TIL in 1978, Leo Ryan,member of the U.S. House of Representative traveled to Guyana to investigate claims that people were being held against their will by Jim Jones at the Peoples Temple Jonestown settlement. He was shot and k*lled there, as he and his party were attempting to leave.

TIL one of the biggest drug busts in the world was in Sylmar, CA. 20 tons of c***ine, worth $6 billion and about 5% of the world’s annual production, was left unguarded and secured with a $6 padlock.

TIL that in 1878, US Supreme Court Justice Ward Hunt suffered a stroke which thereafter left him unable to either attend court sessions or to render opinions. Yet he refused to resign for another 4 years, his sole reason being to stay long enough to claim his pension.

TIL a woman secretly kept her lover hidden in her attic for over a decade; he emerged only to k*ll her husband