Today I Learned 🎓

08 May 2026 06:49

TIL about the Bataan Death March of 1942, where 60,000-80,000 Filipino and American soldiers were captured as prisoners of war by the Japanese and forced to walk most of the way, and moved via train from the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O'Donnell, many of them died from disease and the heat [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 May 2026 01:49

TIL hikers in the Alps discovered Otzi in 1991, a 5,300-year-old man naturally preserved in ice. Scientists identified his last meal as ibex meat and grains, found over 60 soot tattoos around his joints and spine, and recovered his copper axe, flint knife, a fire-starting kit and grass cloak. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 May 2026 00:49

TIL In 1986 a sick patient needed a heart transplant. No air or road routes could travel the distance within the 4 hour window to avoid damage to the organ. It was loaded onto an F-111 Aardvark bomber, that made the 1400 miles trip in 2 hours. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 23:49

TIL a form of penal labour in Victorian England was the "crank machine", consisting of a hand crank attached to a box filled with sand. When turned, it would drag two pairs of cups through the sand inside, doing absolutely nothing useful. Prisoners were forced to turn the crank for 6 hours a day. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 22:49

TIL Henrietta Wood, born enslaved, was freed in 1848 but kidnapped back into slavery in 1853. After the Civil War she sued her kidnapper and an all white jury awarded her $2500, the largest known U.S. court award for slavery. This sum helped fund her son's law degree at what became Northwestern Law [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 20:49

TIL: In the 2007 NBA Draft, Greg Oden was selected #1 and played 3 years. The four players drafted directly after him are still active, 19 years later. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 19:49

TIL a mob of angry British women that married American soldiers "besieged" Eleanor Roosevelt's hotel in November 1945 because they weren't being allowed to immigrate to the USA [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 17:49

TIL that in 2005, a film crew making a movie about 9/11 blew what they thought was scrap paper into the air to simulate the debris falling from the towers. The crew had to attempt to retrieve the papers when they realized that what they scattering around downtown Toronto were in fact medical records [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 16:49

TIL the Buran 1.01, the only Russian shuttle to fly to space, was destroyed in a roof collapse in 2002 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 14:49

TIL ValuJet Airlines, an ultra low cost carrier in the 1990s, was notorious for its dangerous cost-cutting measures. In a span of 2 years from 1994-1996, the airline saw 129 emergency landings & an accident rate 14 times higher than legacy airlines of the era. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 09:49

TIL the Lewis and Clark expedition had a medical kit that contained fifty dozen laxatives pills know as "thunderclappers" that contained over 50% mercury. This high mercury content was once even used by archeologists to verify a campsite of the expedition. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 06:49

TIL that East Germany required their citizens to leave behind a close relative as "collateral", essentially a hostage, when traveling to West Germany to decrease the chance of defection. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 03:49

TIL North America had native bamboo forests that stretched from New York down to Florida, and as far west as Ohio across to Texas. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 02:49

TIL Humans rank above meerkats but below beavers in monogamy league table. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 00:49

TIL Krakatoa's eruption was estimated to be at 310 dB, the loudest sound ever. Well above the typical max sound limit of 194 dB [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 May 2026 01:49

TIL: Between 1908 and 1940, Sears sold over 70,000 complete DIY house kits through their mail-order catalog. A railcar of pre-cut lumber, nails, and a 75-page instruction manual would show up at your door. Many of these “Sears Homes” are still standing today and sell for $300,000 to $500,000+. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

08 May 2026 00:49

TIL Charles Darwin was a member of the Glutton Club, a group devoted to eating every animal discovered, but the club dissolved after trying to eat a brown owl, the taste of which Darwin called ‘indescribable.’ [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 23:49

TIL when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated in 1983, no effort was made to disguise a bullet wound that had disfigured his face nor change his bloodied clothes as he lay in state. His mother Aurora told the parlor to not embalm him or apply makeup to show the world "what they did to [her] son". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 23:49

TIL of the knight William Marshal, who rose from obscurity to win 500 tournaments, saved Eleanor of Aquitaine from capture, unhorsed Richard the Lionheart in combat, journeyed to the Holy Land, redrafted Magna Carta and saved England from a French invasion by personally leading a charge at age 70 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 21:49

TIL that Goombas (the first enemies encountered in “Super Mario Bros.”) were the last enemies added to the game. They were added after playtesters found the game too hard; limited remaining space required developers to use one sprite and flip it back and forth to convey walking. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 20:49

TIL: About Old Tom a killer whale in Australia who would signal whalers on shore when whales were swimming by to be hunted. He would also tow the long boats out to the whales using a rope between his teeth! [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 19:49

TIL artist Joe Coleman was once arrested for a stage performance in which he burst through a screen with fireworks strapped to his chest and then bit the heads off two live mice. He was charged with “possession of an infernal machine” and ordered not to eat anymore mice for one year. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 17:49

TIL the NYPD has stations in 11 countries outside the US [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 15:49

TIL California miners planted a skull to prank a geologist they disliked. In 1866, Josiah Whitney announced it as proof humans existed in North America two million years ago. Whitney never accepted the hoax, even after a fluorine analysis—the first done on human bone—showed it was of recent origin. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 13:49

TIL that the Y chromosome can disappear with age. About 35% of men aged 70 years old are missing a Y chromosome in some of their cells, with the degree of loss ranging between 4% and 70%. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 07:49

TIL that the United States already has a 1,000-person ballroom available for the President's use. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 05:49

TIL Marie Kondo (the cleaning guru) is only 4'7 (140cm) tall [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 02:49

TIL about Joan Ginther, a Stanford statistician who won $21 million by winning the lottery FOUR times. Calculated to be a "1 in 18 septillion" event, a number with 24 zeros. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

07 May 2026 01:49

TIL that in 1917, over 10,000 African Americans marched in total silence down New York’s Fifth Avenue to protest lynching. It was one of the first mass civil rights protests in U.S. history, yet it is rarely mentioned in standard textbooks. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

06 May 2026 23:49

TIL Michael McKean, who famously played Chuck McGill in "Better Call Saul" and David St. Hubbins in "This Is Spinal Tap", is currently one of the highest-earning game show contestants of all time, having accumulated $1,115,400 during his appearances on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 2010. [Source]