Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 15:49

TIL that the creator of VeggieTales mother forbade two things on the show 1. They could not display Jesus as a Vegetable 2. The Veggies can have no redemptive relationship with God [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 14:49

TIL That Benito Mussolini was given a ceremonial weapon called “Sword of Islam”, recieved the title “Protector of Islam” and saw himself as being a heir to the authority of Ottoman Caliphs since he took over Libya. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 13:49

TIL: Rather than fiddling while Rome Burned, Nero rushed to the city from his villa to organize the relief effort. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 11:49

TIL 17 y.o Matthew Scheidt a billing clerk intern spent days posing as a physician's assistant at a Florida hospital. He performed CPR, and even examined undressed male patients without anyone questioning him for days after convincing the hospital badge office that he had recently been promoted. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 08:49

TIL a man from New Zealand tried to sell his “slightly-used soul” on TradeMe, the auction had received 32,000 hits and more than 100 bids. By 4pm someone had tracked him down and offered him $5001 for his soul, which he accepted. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 04:49

TIL Rapper 50 Cent once dropped 54 pounds in order to better portray a cancer patient in a movie. The film, "All Things Fall Apart", was straight-to-video. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 23:49

TIL that in 1985 the Mayors of the modern cities Rome and Carthage signed a ceremonial peace treaty, a mere 2131 years after the end of the Third Punic War [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 21:49

TIL that Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was humiliated that the term "masochism" was named after him. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 19:49

TIL The sinking of the USS Panay and 3 Standard Oil tankers carrying 600 fleeing Chinese civilians ships during the battle of Nanking in 1937. 3 americans and an unknown number of Chinese civilians would die. FDR would order footage of the sinking edited to lower Japanese culpability and avoid war. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 18:49

TIL William Horatio Bates developed a (dangerous and ineffective) alternative therapy method of treating nearsightedness that involved using a lens to focus sunlight directly onto a patient's eyes [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 15:49

TIL The FBI has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Ruja Ignatova, a billionaire criminal, one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and the founder of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin, which The Times described as 'one of the biggest scams in history. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 13:49

TIL: In 1944, Polish POWs were granted permission by their German captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics in the Oflag II-C camp. An Olympic Flag was raised, made with a bed sheet and pieces of colored scarves. The event has been considered to be a demonstration of Olympic spirit during wartime. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 12:49

TIL There is a classification of lifeform called Endolith that can live inside rocks and have a life cycle of thousands of years, it is also speculated they may exist in interplanetary objects such as comets and meteors thus supporting the Panspermia theory. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 08:49

TIL there's a condition called "auto-brewery syndrome" where your body literally turns carbs into alcohol, and you can get drunk just by eating bread or pasta. Some people have been arrested for DUI without touching a drop of alcohol. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 06:49

TIL Roman Emperor Diocletian was the first to voluntarily retire in 305 AD to grow cabbages. When begged to return to power, he declined, saying "If you could see the vegetables I grow with my own hands, you wouldn’t talk to me about empire." He lived out his days gardening by the Dalmatian coast [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 15:49

TIL A woman donated her kidney to her boss and got fired for taking too long to recover. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 13:49

TIL of the siege of Beitang cathedral during the Boxer rebellion, where 41 Italian and French marines managed to hold off thousands of Chinese troops for months until Japanese allies arrived to relieve the siege, saving the lives of 3,900 Christians who took refuge inside the cathedral. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 13:49

TIL Bill Gates paid a $28 fine every day for 13 years, from 1988 to 2001, to keep a Porsche 959 that was impounded by US Customs. By the time he got his hands on the car, he'd paid more than $133,000 in total from the fines. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 10:49

TIL there used to be a “joke restaurant” in Japan that served curry specifically formulated to have similar taste and texture to human feces. The curry was served in toilet-shaped bowls. The restaurant was founded by Ken Shimizu, who is also one of Japan’s best-known adult media stars. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 04:49

TIL that before Ozzy Osbourne famously bit the head off a bat he bit the head off of two live Doves that were meant to represent peace. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

23 July 2025 00:49

TIL about Lucille Ricksen, a child star from the silent film era. She was often cast playing adults opposite fully grown men and her age was concealed from the public. She died at only 14. It’s believed that her mother and agents overworking her caused to her illness and early death. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 21:49

TIL Ozzy Osbourne gave up taking acid after talking to horse for an hour [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 21:49

TIL In the 1950s Turkey (a member since 1949) rejected a Council of Europe proposal for a flag with a cross in golden circle over blue, citing religious concerns, despite suggestions to add a crescent to address Muslim objections. The circle of stars was adopted instead [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 19:49

TIL about Carl McGunn - Died in 1981 in Alaska when confusion about who was picking him up resulted in him being abandoned to starve [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 18:49

TIL In social psychology, the boomerang effect refers to the unintended consequences of an attempt to persuade resulting in the adoption of an opposing position instead. Typically, the more aggressively a position is presented to someone, the more likely they are to adopt an opposing view. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 14:49

TIL That Cop killer Donald Eugene Webb was on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list for longer than anyone else at the time, and never captured. Turns out the reason for that is his wife was secretly hiding him at her own house and after he died she buried him on her property. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 13:49

TIL that many WW2 aircraft used a radio system so secret that it was supplied with a self-destruct button to prevent it falling into enemy hands. It was so badly designed that pilots and radio operators often blew up their equipment when trying to turn it on. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 12:49

TIL papayas can naturally change sex while growing and scientists are working on methods to produce fruit-only plants [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 06:49

TIL a pesticide applicator applied it to the wrong trees and over 100k bumblebees were killed in Oregon in 2013. The streets were littered with bees. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 July 2025 05:49

TIL that in 1860, 57% of South Carolina’s population was enslaved [Source]