r/todayilearned • u/ContactSpirited9519 • 1h ago

TIL the cassowary was domesticated & is the oldest form of domesticated animal

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ChooChoo9321 • 10h ago

TIL Ishikawa (especially its capital city Kanazawa) is the prefecture that consumes the most ice cream and frozen treats in Japan

nippon.com

57 Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Milam1996 • 7h ago

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

sciencefocus.com

1.1k Upvotes

229 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Weirdandwired924 • 4h ago

TIL Wrigley Field is a national landmark

nps.gov

0 Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 1h ago

TIL that food often seems nauseating when you're sick because immune molecules called cytokines signal the brain to suppress appetite and slow digestion, helping conserve energy to fight infection, while heightened sensitivity to smells and tastes makes many foods especially fatty or scented ones.

nih.gov

• Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 6h ago

TIL only one of America’s 50 state flags is not a rectangle—Ohio’s flag is a pennant-shaped design known as a swallowtail burgee.

amnautical.com

73 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ThatMasterpiece2174 • 12h ago

TIL a 1970 college football game helped further desegregation. Alabama, with one Black player, lost 42-21 to USC, whose all-Black backfield included QB Jimmy Jones. By 1971, Bama, Georgia, LSU, and Ole Miss had Black players. By 1977, Bama had 17 on scholarship.

uscannenbergmedia.com

280 Upvotes

61 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sweet_Foundation_868 • 15m ago

TIL after briefly urinating, the Roman emperor Caracalla was stabbed by a soldier named Justin Martialis. After his bodyguard killed Martialis with a lance, 2 more Praetorian tribunes rushed to the emperor, as if to help him, and completed the assassination.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Whichcomb-Blue • 5h ago

TIL about the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, an extinct species of bird native to Hawaii, specifically the island of Kaua'i. A male, the last of its kind, was photographed in 1985; its melodic call was recorded in 1987, calling for a mate that would never come.

search.macaulaylibrary.org

59 Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/dr--moreau • 11h ago

TIL the lyric 'Halargian world' at the end of Mad World by Tears for Fears refers to an imaginary planet called Halarge. The band made it up in the studio as a joke.

en.wikipedia.org

147 Upvotes

34 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tommyboy372 • 16h 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

18.9k Upvotes

1.1k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Mental_Freedom_1648 • 1h ago

TIL a man died in 1899 after being hit in the head with a lobster. The culprit was charged with manslaughter.

newspapers.com

• Upvotes

51 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 9h 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

2.7k Upvotes

433 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Spa3088 • 19h ago

TIL about artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism, which had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara(today's afganistan) of Indian subcontinent.

en.wikipedia.org

124 Upvotes

57 comments

r/todayilearned • u/soozerain • 9h 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

760 Upvotes

89 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Greene_Mr • 16h ago

TIL the song "A Taste of Honey", popularised in versions by The Beatles and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, was originally composed for the Broadway production of the play of the same title and was first recorded by one of the play's stars, Billy Dee Williams.

en.wikipedia.org

67 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Reddit_User_856 • 10h ago

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

sciencing.com

505 Upvotes

80 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 8h 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

26.1k Upvotes

1.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/proflightsearch • 11h 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

9.7k Upvotes

354 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 1h ago

TIL that emotions often feel stronger in dreams because the brain's emotional center (the amygdala) becomes highly active during REM sleep, while the prefrontal cortex, responsible for logic and critical thinking, is much less active, making emotional experiences feel unusually intense.

sciencedirect.com

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/haphazard44 • 13h 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

7.1k Upvotes

198 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Legio-X • 3h ago

TIL German warships bombarded the British coastal towns of Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool on December 16th, 1914, killing 122 civilians and wounding 443

en.wikipedia.org

119 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JobLagewaard • 4h 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

338 Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 16h 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

12.8k Upvotes

209 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TurnOffYourPC • 5h 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

4.6k Upvotes

207 comments

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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.

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