Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 02:49

TIL insects aren’t actually attracted to light but try to keep it above their backs due to a built-in reflex called the Dorsal Light Response. This makes them turn their dorsum toward the light mistaking it for the sky which causes them to circle around artificial light sources [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 01:49

TIL the lowest body temperature ever survived by a person was measured at 11.8°C in a 27-month year toddler 10 minutes after blood flow was reestablished in the patient. The lowest recorded body temperature in a surviving adult is 13.7°C [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 23:49

TIL that after featuring as the "childlike empress" in The Neverending Story, the 11 year old actress began receiving marriage proposals from adult men resulting in her hiatus from acting until she was an adult. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 21:49

TIL Anne Askew was an English writer, poet, and Protestant preacher. Condemned as a heretic during Henry VIII’s reign, she was tortured and burned alive after refusing to give up the names of her fellow Protestants. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 21:49

TIL, famous British author, Roald Dahl co-invented a medical device, the Wade-Dahl-Till valve, to treat the hydrocephalus in children after his son suffered from it after being hit by a taxicab. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 19:49

TIL the U.S. military stopped producing new M1911 pistols in 1945 but continued using refurbished models for over 40 years, officially replacing them with the Beretta M9 in 1985 - though some special forces continued to carry them well into the 21st century. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 18:49

TIL that Amtrak is an independent agency of the US federal government [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 15:49

TIL During Japan's Edo period (1603-1868), upper-class women sometimes hired female attendants called "Heoibikuni" (or "fart-bearing nuns") to take blame for their flatulence. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 12:49

TIL Alleged spy Mata Hari was a famous exotic dancer who never appeared fully nude onstage. Although she would strip off most of her clothes, her jeweled breastplate would remain. This was because she was self-conscious about her small breasts. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 07:49

TIL when actor Patrick Stewart starred with a young rookie called Tom Hardy in Star Trek : Nemesis (2002), he never expected to hear about Tom Hardy again. He now admits he was glad to be proved wrong. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 04:49

TIL George Washington wanted to burn down New York City during the American Revolution so that the British could not seize it. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 02:49

TIL Henry Cavill was close to being cast as James Bond, Cedric Diggory, Edward Cullen and a 2004 version of Superman. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 00:49

TIL that a British WW2 tail gunner fell 18000 feet without a parachute. His fall was broken by fir trees and a soft snow cover on the ground and suffered only a sprained leg. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 June 2025 23:49

TIL that the first President of Guyana was the first ethnically Chinese person to be elected as head of state in a non-Asian country. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 June 2025 20:49

TIL a scientific study published in 2021 showed making memories actually involves breaking our DNA, then repairing them. When DNA repairs go wrong, it can lead to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 02:49

TIL of Torpedo Juice which was drunk by sailors in WW2 by combining 180-proof ethyl alcohol with pineapple juice. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 June 2025 00:49

TIL Curt Richter found that rats placed in water drowned within 15 minutes—unless they were rescued once. After experiencing a brief rescue, those same rats swam for over 60 hours, driven by the hope of being saved again. This suggests that hope alone can push us beyond our limits. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 22:49

TIL a 10-year-old boy died after contracting "rat-bite fever" from his pet rat which was purchased at Petco. Following a trial, a jury determined that Petco was not liable for the boy's death and that Petco did enough to warn consumers about the dangers of owing a pet rat. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 21:49

TIL Japan has one vending machine per 30-40 people [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 20:49

TIL that during WW2 half of all Avro Lancasters built during the war were lost in operations with an estimates death of 21,000 airmen. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 18:49

TIL of Alejandra Loaiza, ex-wife of both Jermaine and Randy Jackson of the Jackson family. She had children with both, making the kids both half-siblings and cousins. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 17:49

TIL that in 1999 Mets manager Bobby Valentine was ejected from a game and then returned to the dugout wearing a disguise [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 12:49

TIL that after learning about the atrocities committed during the Battle of Manila, dictator of Spain Francisco Franco considered declaring war on Japan and joining the allies, 40 years after the Philippines became independent from Spain. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 09:49

Today I learned that the Library of Congress added, “Spy Kids” (2001) into their national film registry as a, “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” movie. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 06:49

TIL Dolphins have "bromances" in which two males may pair up for as long as 15 years and help each other hook up with females [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 03:49

TIL the first female US senator was also the last slave-owning US senator [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 02:49

TIL that all diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob and fatal insomnia, have a perfect 100% mortality rate. There are no cases of survival and these diseases are invariably fatal. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

10 June 2025 00:49

TIL that theday after the Kent State shootings, A Gallup poll found that 58% of Americans believed the students were responsible for their own deaths, while only 11% blamed the Guard. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 June 2025 21:49

TIL the Dead Kennedys almost bancrupted their label over obscenity charges when they included a poster of a HR Giger painting that shows a mass of interlocked genitals and butt cheeks. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

09 June 2025 20:49

TIL Gimp, the lanyard crafting material, was originally called “Scoubidou” and the fad started in France [Source]