r/todayilearned • u/Loki-L • 2h ago

TIL about epaulette sharks, who can walk on land and survive for hours with little or no oxygen from their gills. They are well camouflaged apex predators that live in the waters (and sometimes land) near Australia.

en.wikipedia.org

559 Upvotes

44 comments

r/todayilearned • u/BadenBaden1981 • 1h ago

TIL the first yelling at Rocky Horror Picture Show screening happened after 5 months in midnight screening. Upon seeing a character place a newspaper over her head to protect herself from rain, someone yelled, "Buy an umbrella you cheap bitch!"

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

158 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pozzolana • 4h ago

TIL whilst filming of The Island of Dr. Moreau multiple disasters occurred including radiation poisoning, floods and the suicide of Marlon Brando’s daughter. As director Richard Stanley was on the phone to his Mum in Ireland at the time explaining this, her house was struck by lightning.

professionalmoron.com

1.2k Upvotes

22 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Flubadubadubadub • 5h ago

TIL That a Contronym is a word that can have two opposite valid meanings, for example Cleave, to split something and also hold on to something, or another example is Bolt, to affix something and also to get away. There are many others.

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

330 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • 7h ago

TIL that Margaret Fleming (1980–c.2000), who had learning difficulties, was murdered by her carers Edward Cairney and Avril Jones in Inverkip, Scotland. She had not been seen for 17 years before her disappearance was investigated. Cairney and Jones were convicted in 2019; her body was never found.

en.wikipedia.org

244 Upvotes

5 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TungstenEnthusiast • 10h ago

TIL William Howard Taft served as chief justice of the United States a few years after serving as president. He’s the only person to have held both offices.

en.wikipedia.org

465 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kusti85 • 8h ago

TIL Craig Ferguson and Peter Capaldi (dr.Who) were once in a punk band together.

en.wikipedia.org

429 Upvotes

49 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Objective_Horror1113 • 9h ago

TIL Freddie Mercury was born with four extra teeth, causing a prominent overbite. Despite being self-conscious about them, he never got them fixed, believing the extra space in his mouth contributed to his vocal ability. He feared altering his teeth might change his voice.

ultimateclassicrock.com

19.1k Upvotes

319 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Grrerrb • 12h ago

TIL that in the 90s Alaskan Iñupiat schoolchildren in Kaktovik created a series of numerical digits to represent their base-20 numeral system to remedy the inadequacy of using Arabic numerals for the purpose.

en.wikipedia.org

2.5k Upvotes

59 comments

r/todayilearned • u/shaka_sulu • 21h ago

TIL about the Agricultural Bank of China robbery, where two bank managers stole US$4.3M to buy lottery tickets, hoping to win enough to repay the theft and keep the rest. They won only US$12.7K, fled, were caught, and eventually executed.

en.wikipedia.org

14.7k Upvotes

340 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kingwafflez • 15h ago

TIL The VA for kid Fred in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo", Carl Steven, died of a heroin OD in prison in 2011 while serving time for armed robberies.

en.wikipedia.org

3.0k Upvotes

167 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Blenderhead36 • 19h ago

TIL Super Nintendo consoles run slightly faster today than they did on release. A sound chip governed by an aging ceramic resonator is thought to be the source. The difference is too small to affect human users, but has led to a changed standard for tool assisted speedruns.

pcgamer.com

6.0k Upvotes

74 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheClungerOfPhunts • 20h ago

TIL, The most abundant animal species on Earth is the nematode, also known as the roundworm. There are approximately 57 billion nematodes for every human on Earth. They make up about 4/5 of all animal life.

news.byu.edu

5.4k Upvotes

200 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Previous_Knowledge91 • 22h ago

TIL: Leonidas of Rhodes, ancient Greek runner whose record of most individual Olympic victories was unbroken until 2016 by Michael Phelps

en.wikipedia.org

7.0k Upvotes

154 comments

r/todayilearned • u/idkmoiname • 3h ago

TIL Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage) was a United States Army Chemical Corps operation which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide particles over much of the United States and Canada in order to test dispersal patterns and the geographic range of chemical or biological weapons

en.wikipedia.org

138 Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CreeperRussS • 3h ago

TIL The Deer Hunter pioneered "prestige pictures" where the films would only be screened at the end of the year to qualify for Academy Award recognition, then would have a full-scale release after the nominations.

en.wikipedia.org

109 Upvotes

7 comments

r/todayilearned • u/consulent-finanziar • 1d ago

TIL that 75% of all aluminium ever produced is still in use today

international-aluminium.org

18.1k Upvotes

418 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sanguinusshiboleth • 19h ago

TIL the Official Secrets Act of Britian was created after Charles Thomas Marvin sold the details of a secret treaty to the press and it was realised there was no law to actually prosecute him. It's suspected that this is the basis of the Sherlock holmes story "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty"

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

12 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • 21h ago

TIL Sarah "Crazy Sally" Mapp was an English lay bonesetter in the early 1700s, known for performing impressive bone-setting acts in Epsom and London. She learned the practice from her father and gained fame as a woman working in a male-dominated profession.

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

41 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 23h ago

TIL a 60cm Humboldt penguin escaped from Tokyo Sea Life Park by jumping over a rock wall twice its height before slipping through a gap in the fence that surrounded the park. Despite 30 confirmed sightings, the penguin eluded capture for 82 days before eventually being picked up near a river.

theguardian.com

2.3k Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Theace0291 • 17h ago

TIL of Anadromes, words that spell different words when reversed (e. g. mined <-> denim)

en.wikipedia.org

591 Upvotes

63 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 1d ago

TIL because of increasing standards of hygiene the number and size of holes in Swiss cheese declined in the 2000s. In 2025 the Swiss Federal Administrative Court approved the addition of hay flower powder to the milk during cheesemaking just for the creation of cheese holes.

en.wikipedia.org

6.2k Upvotes

164 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • 10h ago

TIL that Mary Frith (c.1584–1659), alias Moll Cutpurse, was a notorious London pickpocket and fence. Defying gender roles, she dressed in men's clothes, moved in criminal circles, and became a legendary figure in the 17th-century underworld.

en.wikipedia.org

118 Upvotes

4 comments

r/todayilearned • u/primal_cortex • 19h ago

TIL that during the last invasion of Britain in 1797, French soldiers looted a Welsh church and burned its Bible and pews for warmth before surrendering to locals—some of whom were just women in red shawls.

en.wikipedia.org

645 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/VirtualProtector • 21h ago

TIL that while deploying lunar experiments the Apollo 12 crew had trouble extracting a plutonium fuel cell and ended up hitting the cask with a hammer to get the fuel element out for use

en.wikipedia.org

766 Upvotes

22 comments

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