Today I Learned 🎓

18 June 2025 00:49

TIL that since it's discovery in 1930, Pluto has still yet to complete a full orbit around the sun, and will only do so by 2178. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 21:49

TIL that the “He Who Has No Life” character that terrorizes the South Park children in the episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” was based on video game project manager Joey Ray Hall [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 18:49

TIL that, in the first printed attestation of orangutans in western sources, Malays claimed the ape could talk but preferred not to “lest he be compelled to labour” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 18:49

TIL the Wife of Actor Anthony Perkins (Psycho) Tragically Passed in the September 11 attacks, as a Passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 17:49

TIL that in 1999, 11-year old Mitchell Schop wrote to his favorite band, Cake, and asked if they would play his Bar Mitzvah. After Schop sang his favorite song of theirs to the band over the phone, Cake agreed and made Schop's party the first stop on their 1999 world tour [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 15:49

TIL that the only victim of the Titanic disaster from Monaco was officially declared dead in 2000. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 14:49

TIL that in the Middle Ages, the bodies of aristocrats who died in far-off lands would sometimes be boiled to remove the flesh from the bone, in order to make it possible to hygenically transport their bones to their homelands for burial [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 13:49

TIL that mafaldine pasta was named after Princess Mafalda of Savoy, who was imprisoned during World War Il at the Buchenwald concentration camp, where she died. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 08:49

TIL that some people are genetically gifted because they can sleep for as little as four hours without experiencing daytime sleepiness or any other issues as a result of sleep deprivation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 06:49

TIL that instant coffee was invented by a New Zealander named David Strang in 1889 — decades before it was "discovered" elsewhere. Strang, from Invercargill, patented a method for producing soluble coffee powder using a dry hot-air process. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 02:49

TIL George Reeves, the original 1950s Superman, died from a gunshot under bizarre circumstances. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 22:49

TIL that in 2023, a man in Peru was caught with a restaurant delivery bag containing a mummified corpse 600 to 800 years old. The man said the mummy was his "spiritual girlfriend" and referred to it as Juanita. When authorities confiscated the mummy and examined it, it turned out to be a male. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 22:49

TIL that the Colosseum in Rome once had 80 entrances - 4 of which were reserved for the emperors, senators, and people of high order. The other 76 were general entrances for spectators. Today, the Colosseum has only 3 entrances. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 19:49

TIL Warren Buffett’s investment prowess led to Berkshire Hathaway generating a 19.8% annualized return from 1965-2023, nearly doubling the 10.2% return the S&P 500 had over that time. In 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the first nontechnology company to top a $1 trillion market capitalization. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 18:49

TIL Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's faithful butler, was killed off in the Batman comics in 2019. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 22:49

TIL that Ken Allen, an orangutan at the San Diego Zoo, became famous for his many successful escapes. During his escapes, he would peacefully stroll around the zoo looking at other animals. He never acted aggressively toward patrons, but would throw rocks at Otis, another orangutan he “despised” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 20:49

TIL that in 2019, American actor Charles Levin, aged 70, died after his car got stuck in unmaintained wilderness road in Oregon. After trying to free it, he left the car in search of help and fell to his death down a 30-foot (9 m) embankment. The body of his dog, Boo Bear, was found inside the car. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 18:49

TIL that Arnold Schwarzenegger had an older brother named Meinhard, who was killed in a car crash in 1971, while driving drunk. The brothers each have a son named Patrick Schwarzenegger. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 17:49

TIL: Roughly one in five U.S. workplace deaths occur at construction sites [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 16:49

TIL that there is no evidence that Marie-Antoinette ever said the phrase “let them eat cake.” during the French Revolution [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 15:49

TIL that in June 1885, after a stormy 27-day voyage, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York in 350 crated pieces. At its October 1886 dedication, traders tossed ticker tape from windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 13:49

TIL: Apollo Astronauts couldn't get life insurance cover, so before flights they would sign hundreds of photographs of themselves, so their families could sell them if they didn't return. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 09:49

TIL we lose 200-300 ML of water every night just from breathing while sleeping! [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 08:49

TIL Jared Leto sent used condoms and a dead pig to his Suicide Squad co-stars while preparing for his Joker role.
As part of his method acting, he mailed disturbing items—like a live rat, bullets, and adult objects. Many co-stars found it unsettling and called the experience disturbing. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 04:49

TIL that on Emma Watson's 18th birthday, paparazzi attempted to take pictures under her skirt by laying down on the pavement in front of her house and then published them. If they were taken 24 hours earlier, it would have been illegal. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 June 2025 00:49

TIL that a working nuclear bomb can be designed by three PhD level Physicists in about two years — and that experiment was done in the 60s with them having no specialised knowledge in nuclear physics [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 22:49

TIL that ancient Greek and Roman historians wrote about a species of headless humans with faces in their chest who supposedly populated Libya and Aethopia [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 20:49

Today I learned that in 67 C.E., Emperor Nero found a boy named Sporus who resembled his deceased wife. Nero had him castrated, dressed in female clothing, and made the entire imperial court treat him as if he were the Empress. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 18:49

TIL when DMX was facing 5 yrs in prison for tax evasion, his lawyer played his song "Slippin'" for the judge to illustrate how far he had come since his "horrific childhood" in the hope for leniency. Indeed, the judge was affected by the circumstances of DMX's upbringing & sentenced him to just a yr [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 June 2025 17:49

TIL frogs will in fact try to escape a slowly boiling pot. The myth is based on 19th century experiments in which the frogs have had their brains removed before boiling. [Source]