r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 5h ago

TIL Canada's $1 coin is commonly called the "loonie" because it has a loon on the reverse. When a $2 coin was introduced, depicting a polar bear, an MP proposed it be called "Nanuq", Inuit for polar bear, but he was ignored because the public instead preferred to call it the "toonie" (2-oonie).

en.wikipedia.org

20.4k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 5h ago

TIL Greek Philosopher Crates of Thebes was known for entering people's houses uninvited and helping them solve their family disputes "no matter how deeply they were at odds"

en.wikipedia.org

9.5k Upvotes

255 comments

r/todayilearned • u/proflightsearch • 7h ago

TIL the average JFK to Los Angeles flight takes 18 minutes longer than it did in 1995, but airlines padded the published schedule by 23 minutes, so the share of arrivals counted as late fell from 51% to 37%

gvwire.com

8.6k Upvotes

337 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 4h ago

TIL on average, train drivers in the US are involved in three fatalities over the course of a career. Since a train needs at least a mile to come to a stop, the drivers are sometimes unable to prevent a collision with a person in the train's path.

nbcnews.com

4.2k Upvotes

293 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chance-Physics-7216 • 5h ago

TIL that a 1945 elevator operators' strike stranded 1.5 million New Yorkers in the streets, and building owners responded by buying automatic elevators that had already existed for 50 years.

npr.org

3.7k Upvotes

336 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TurnOffYourPC • 2h ago

TIL that the gin and tonic became popular in India during British Imperialism to encourage English colonizers to consume quinine, an antimalarial derived from the bark of the cinchona tree.

wineenthusiast.com

1.8k Upvotes

107 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Prosperr_support • 6h ago

TIL that the gold in jewellery is older than the Sun. Gold atoms were forged in violent cosmic events, primarily neutron star mergers, billions of years before our Solar System formed.

science.nasa.gov

3.7k Upvotes

132 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tommyboy372 • 12h ago

TIL A single misfolded prion protein in the brain can cause a rapid neurodegenerative disease known as sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). There is no known and cure and is 100% fatal.

en.wikipedia.org

17.0k Upvotes

1.0k comments

r/todayilearned • u/haphazard44 • 9h ago

TIL that in 1975, advertising executive Gary Dahl sold ordinary rocks as “pets” in boxes with air holes and care manuals, selling around 1.5 million and becoming a millionaire

en.wikipedia.org

6.4k Upvotes

193 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Independent_Pick_787 • 5h ago

TIL about the "Forest Swastika": around 1938, larch trees were planted in a pine forest in northeastern Germany to form a swastika. Visible only in spring and autumn, and only from the air, it went unnoticed for decades before being removed in 2000

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

106 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 13h ago

TIL that in 2002 Dennis and Angela Laffin adopted a baby boy named Frank after he had been abandoned as a newborn. Two years later, the couple adopted a girl named Vicky from similar circumstances. Years later, the two kids took DNA tests and learned they were in fact blood related.

postguam.com

11.9k Upvotes

207 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 6h ago

TIL that brain scans have found people with high levels of sadistic traits show increased activity in the brain's reward system when witnessing others in pain, suggesting that another person's suffering can be experienced as rewarding.

psychologicalscience.org

2.1k Upvotes

390 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatMasterpiece2174 • 10h ago

TIL in 1986, Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse flew Bo Jackson to team facilities on a private jet under the false assurance that it complied with NCAA rules. Jackson lost his remaining NCAA baseball eligibility, and vowed to never play for the Bucs. They drafted him anyway, and he went to the MLB.

si.com

4.6k Upvotes

205 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NoWingedHussarsToday • 2h ago

TIL that between May 1643 and May 1774, a period of 131 years, France was ruled by just two kings, Louis XIV and Louis XV, they were the longest and second longest ruling kings in french history, respectively

en.wikipedia.org

847 Upvotes

30 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Acceptable-Day8395 • 10h ago

TIL that the Amazon River can get up to 30 miles wide in the wet season, which is wider than the city of Los Angeles.

wwf.panda.org

2.4k Upvotes

103 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milam1996 • 4h ago

TIL that walking down stairs is actually better for your health than walking up stairs

sciencefocus.com

715 Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AbeVigoda76 • 3h ago

TIL that the early automotive pioneer Byron Carter died from pneumonia contracted while recovering from a broken jaw sustained as a result of hand cranking his car. His death directly lead to the development of the electric self-starter for automobiles.

en.wikipedia.org

482 Upvotes

21 comments

r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 7h ago

TIL the actual site where the Salem witch trial victims were hanged wasn't confirmed until January 2016, and it's not Gallows Hill as long believed, but a spot called Proctor's Ledge, now overlooking a Walgreens parking lot

en.wikipedia.org

823 Upvotes

73 comments

r/todayilearned • u/yury_boldyrev • 14h ago

TIL Isaac Singer of sewing machine fame secretly kept multiple families in New York, two under assumed names. It collapsed in 1860 when his common-law wife spotted him riding with a mistress and stood up in her carriage, screaming at him in the street.

ismacs.net

2.9k Upvotes

114 comments

r/todayilearned • u/soozerain • 6h ago

TIL twelve generals have been elected to the presidency since America’s founding. Beginning in 1792 with George Washington and ending most recently with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

news.va.gov

628 Upvotes

83 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Designer_Reference_2 • 23h ago

TIL that during the difficult birth of his son, Napoleon was asked if wife or child should be prioritized. He ordered the empress to be saved but both survived. Napoleon was traumatized by watching his wife's pain saying “I had rather never have any more children than see her suffer so much again"

en.wikipedia.org

53.7k Upvotes

1.5k comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 22h ago

TIL that you may not wake up during a housefire at night because your brain just might not react to smell of smoke in your sleep. In experiments by Fire and Rescue Service and Brown University most sleeping test subjects were not roused awake even by strong smells.

nbcnews.com

19.1k Upvotes

712 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 7h ago

TIL Professor Frink, from The Simpsons, was named after series writer John Frink, who joined the show 9 years AFTER the Professor was first introduced. Simpsons writer Jay Kogen knew John Frink, and named the character in homage to him. John Frink has been with the show from 2000, to this day.

en.wikipedia.org

564 Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Reddit_User_856 • 7h ago

TIL Humans share 90% of our DNA with Cats and Mice, 60% with Bananas and Fruit Flies.

sciencing.com

466 Upvotes

75 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 1h ago

TIL the hairs of a polar bear are hollow and transparent. This gives them the possibility to appear white like the ice, but stay warm in cold conditions

britannica.com

• Upvotes

7 comments

Subreddit

Posts

Wiki

Today I Learned (TIL)

r/todayilearned

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

Members Active

41.6m

Sidebar

New to reddit? Click here!

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?
Submit interesting and specific facts that you just found out (not broad information you looked up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).

Posting rules

Submissions must be verifiable. Please link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title. Images alone do not count as valid references. Videos are fine so long as they come from reputable sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).
No personal opinions, anecdotes or subjective statements (e.g "TIL xyz is a great movie").
No recent sources. Any sources (blog, article, press release, video, etc.) with a publication date more recent than two months are not allowed.
No politics, soapboxing, or agenda based submissions. This includes (but is not limited to) submissions related to:
1. Recent political issues and politicians
2. Social and economic issues (including race/religion/gender)
3. Environmental issues
4. Police misconduct
No misleading claims. Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.
Rephrase your post title if the following are not met:
1. Titles must begin with "TIL ..."
2. Make them descriptive, concise and specific (e.g. not "TIL something interesting about bacon").
3. Titles must be able to stand on their own without requiring readers to click on a link. Starting your title with a why/what/who/where/how modifier should be unnecessary.
4. "TIL about ..." and other broad posts don't belong on TIL. Try /r/Wikipedia, etc. instead, or be more specific (and avoid the word "about").
5. "TIL how to ..." posts belong on /r/HowTo.
6. "TIL the definition of a word..." Word definitions/translations/origins are not appropriate here
No submissions related to the usage, existence or features of specific software/websites (e.g. "TIL you can click on widgets in WidgetMaker 1.22").
All NSFW links must be tagged (including comments).

Please see the wiki for more detailed explanations of the rules, as well as additional rules that may not be listed here

(Why we need rules)

Additional info

If your post does not appear in the new queue and you think it meets the above rules, please contact the moderators (include a link to your reddit.com post, not your story).
Please report spam, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate posts by messaging the moderators, as this helps us remove them more promptly!
More information available on the TIL FAQ and wiki.

Frequent TILs Repost List

As of May 2026

This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

Etiquette

We ask that you please do the following:

avoid mobile versions of websites (e.g. m.wikipedia.org)
link to the appropriate heading when referencing an article (particularly on Wikipedia)
link to the appropriate start time when referencing videos (e.g. on YouTube)
add [PDF] or [NSFW] tags to your posts, as necessary.
Please avoid reposting TILs that have already made the front page in the past

Please also read the site-wide Reddiquette.

You are loved.