Today I Learned 🎓

20 July 2025 00:49

TIL Narender Yadav an Indian went to Everest where he claimed to have summitted the mountain but discrepancies were noticed which indicated he had faked the summit. He got a ban from the mountain for six years. He returned the day after his ban expired and reached the summit with ample proof. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 23:49

TIL in 1859, an aurora was so strong over the Rocky Mountains that gold miners were woken up in the middle of the night thinking it was morning and they made breakfast. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 21:49

TIL that 32 US States have a State Beverage, and 20 of them are milk. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 18:49

TIL $157K worth of stolen Magic: the Gathering and Dungeon & Dragons gaming cards were recovered after they were turned in by the party who bought them from the thieves for $4K. The cards had been stolen at Gen Con 2023 when 2 men simply walked out with a pallet that had 115 boxes of the cards on it [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 17:49

TIL the British colonial government in India had created state-sanctioned brothels for "entertaining" English soldiers, something the English feminists and abolitionists of the time noted with horror. The girls would often be abducted from villages and tended to be as young as fourteen. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 17:49

TIL in 2022 a chess-playing robot broke the finger of its 7-year-old opponent after the boy didn't give it enough time to respond & attempted to move again. The robot held his finger in place for 15 seconds before bystanders were able to pry it free. The boy then played with his finger in a cast. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 16:49

TIL MAD Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman has mysterious origins; his face has been used in advertisements since at least the 1890s. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 11:49

TIL gunshot wounds can cause lead poisoning years later from tiny lead fragments in the bone leaching into the body [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 07:49

TIL King George III had empathy for Native Americans and pushed the the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade all new settlements west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains, which was delineated as an Indian Reserve. This angered many Colonists. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 04:49

TIL during/after the Korean War, South Korea state-sponsored prostitution for US troops, framing it as women's 'patriotic duty.' Camp towns from the DMZ to Seoul were called 'GI Heaven. The sex workers endured severe abuses to facilitate "sexual hygiene" such as forced medication and imprisonment. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 02:49

TIL In Sweden, a couple tried to name their child “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116” They claimed it was pronounced “Albin.” It was rejected.The parents suggested that the name be understood in the spirit of 'pataphysics'. The court rejected the name and upheld the fine. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 01:49

TIL A charity in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed candies filled with lethal doses of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the sweets were anonymously donated by a member of the public. Each candy contained up to 300 times a normal dose of meth [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2025 23:49

TIL Mary Magdalene was wrongly labeled as a prostitute [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2025 22:49

TIL that in 1774, Colonial Americans had the highest standard of living in the Western world - with annual per‑capita income of about £14, outpacing Britain, France, and Spain [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2025 20:49

TIL a Galápagos tortoise believed extinct since 1906 was rediscovered in 2022 on a remote island. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

20 July 2025 00:49

TIL about the Mexican Lapdog, an extinct dog breed that measured only 18 cm (7.1 in) from the snout to the base of the tail as an adult. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 23:49

TIL That More than 60% of U.S. smokers have unsuccessfully tried to stop smoking in the past year, a 2017 study found. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 20:49

TIL that in 1994, Pearl Jam canceled their summer tour after discovering Ticketmaster was adding unfair service charges. In protest, they began building their own venues in rural areas and sold tickets directly to fans to keep prices low and avoid corporate influence. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 18:49

TIL that pet cats form attachments with their human owners that are similar to the bonds formed by children and dogs with their caretakers. It's the first time that researchers have empirically demonstrated that cats display the same main attachment styles as babies and dogs [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 17:49

TIL Stephen King once threw away the manuscript for Carrie, believing it wasn’t good enough. He was living in a trailer with his wife, Tabitha, who found the pages in the trash, read them, and pushed him to finish and submit it. The novel launched his career. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 16:49

TIL the BBC broadcast coded messages to British secret agents behind enemy lines during WWII [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 14:49

TIL that in 1691, a man was called to testify as a witness to robbery and told the court that God turned him into a werewolf so he could raid Hell and fight the demons there. The judges took his claim seriously and banished him from Livonia for sorcery. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 09:49

TIL that Pope Celestine V resigned just 5 months into his papacy in 1294 because he never wanted the job and wanted to go back to his cave, he was chosen after a 2-year deadlock, felt overwhelmed by Vatican politics, issued a decree allowing popes to quit, and then used it to step down. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 05:49

TIL that during the American Revolutionary War, African-Americans served in the British army over 2-to-1 versus in the American army because they viewed a British victory as a way to achieve freedom from slavery [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 04:49

TIL Sweden is capable of domestically building submarines, frigates, jet fighters and satellites, despite having a population of just over 10 million people. Per capita it is one of the largest arms exporters on the planet. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 01:49

TIL about Franceska Mann. A Jewish ballerina who arrived at Auschwitz in 1943 and was about to be gassed, she managed to take a pistol from an SS-officer and then killed him with it, starting a riot. The riot ended when SS reinforcements arrived and mowed the prisoners down with machineguns. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2025 00:49

TIL that despite their drivers being nicknamed “Massholes”, Massachusetts roads are annually ranked the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd safest in the country. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2025 23:49

TIL that Japanese trains are on average only 18 seconds late. If a train is delayed by more than a minute, passengers often receive an official delay certificate to show their employer why they are late [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2025 21:49

TIL the book 'Rage' by Stephen King was taken out of print after being found in the lockers of school shooters. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2025 17:49

TIL that Frisian is the closest language to English. It's spoken by about 400,000 people living mostly on the coast of the North Sea, with the highest concentration in the Dutch province of Friesland. Though similar to English, they are not mutually intelligible [Source]