Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 13:49

TIL Britain didn't colonize Australia solely because its prisons were overcrowded. Historians say fears that France would establish colonies and challenge British trade and naval power in the Pacific were a major reason they invested heavily in establishing Australia in 1788. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 07:49

TIL that the street in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington DC is named Jamal Khashoggi way. Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 06:49

TIL about Sarah Boone, who was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after she locked her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr. in a suitcase and left him to suffocate. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 04:49

TIL if you rearrange the digits of a 4 digit number into ascending order, then take the initial number and rearrange it into descending order and subtract the second number from the first, repeating this will almost always result in 6174 (Kaprekar's constant). [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 03:49

TIL that Justin Zackham, the writer of the 2007 film The Bucket List, coined the expression "bucket list" after he wrote his own "List of Things to do Before I Kick the Bucket" and shortened it to "Justin's Bucket List". The first item on his list was to "get a film made at a major studio". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 02:49

TIL that bamboo forests (aka canebrakes) used to be widespread across the southeastern United States. They were rapidly destroyed by early settlers because they tend to only grow on land that’s the most fertile for agriculture. Today canebrakes are considered a critically endangered ecosystem [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 01:49

Today I learned that Nintendo briefly considered giving pikachu large breasts to appeal to western audiences. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 00:49

TIL a man in China lived with a 12cm-long metal chopstick lodged in his throat for 8 years after he swallowed it while drinking. He then decided to live with it because he was afraid of having surgery. However after it was finally removed, it was revealed his vocal cords hadn't been harmed at all. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 23:49

TIL about Snake Detection Theory (SDT), which proposes that snakes contributed to the development of advanced visual systems in primates. Individuals with stronger vision would be better able to recognise snakes and escape from them, therefore passing on their genes to the next generation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 22:49

TIL that dung beetles improve soil quality, disperse seeds, and remove food sources for pest insects. They have been introduced throughout the world for their beneficial effects; in the US, their annual economic benefit is estimated at $380 million. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 19:49

TIL about the Mormon Battalion, an infantry battalion of the US Army. It was the only unit in American military history recruited solely from one religious group and having a religious title as the unit designation. The only "battle" they fought was against a sizable number of wild cattle. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 17:49

TIL that in 2018, singer Akon announced the development of "Akon City," a planned community in Senegal which he claimed would be a "real life Wakanda," using blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. Construction began in 2023, but as of 2025 the site sits abandoned [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 14:49

TIL Canada's 30+ Year Stanley Cup Drought Is a Statistical Outlier [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 12:49

TIL when Sednaya prison was liberated in 2024 at the end of the Syrian civil war, some prisoners had been without outside contact for so long they believed the HTS rebels were actually Iraqi soldiers under Saddam. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 08:49

TIL the War Powers Act of 1973 requires a president to get congressional approval within 60 days of starting a war but in its 50+ year history it has never once been legally enforced against a sitting president, making it effectively unenforceable [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 10:49

TIL small dog breeds are on average less obedient, more likely to growl at strangers or other dogs and more anxious than larger dog breeds [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 07:49

TIL that in 1964, the US government intentionally blasted Oklahoma City with 1,253 sonic booms over 6 months just to see if the noise would drive citizens crazy or damage their homes. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 05:49

TIL: Pork is actually red meat and not "The Other White Meat" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 04:49

TIL that U.S. General George S. Patton competed in modern pentathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics when he was a 26-year-old officer. He fainted from exertion after running 2.5 miles; used a .38-caliber weapon instead of .22; and placed fifth, with Swedish athletes winning bronze, gold, and silver. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 02:49

TIL that The Gambia is only one of two countries that which uses the definitive article "the" in its name & the only one of those two who capitalise 'The'. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 01:49

TIL Marshmallow is just a candy made from sugar and gelatine. It doesn’t contain any Althaea officinalis, the marsh-mallow plant. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 00:49

TIL the dude who played orange paper cups on the Beach Boys song "God Only Knows" killed his mother. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

31 May 2026 00:49

TIL in 2018 after a Swedish mother got a tattoo of the first names of her two children at the time: her daughter Nova & her son Kevin, she realized that the artist had misspelled 'Kevin' as 'Kelvin'; it read 'Nova & Kelvin'. However, instead of correcting it, they legally changed his name to Kelvin. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 22:49

TIL for the last few decades a former Cold War spy and mathematical savant has been card-counting at casinos to fund his creation of complex calendrical puzzle-paintings targeted towards a future audience of hyper-intelligent robots [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 20:49

TIL a Chinese retail distributed all 4 billion yuan assets to their employees to protect the brand from local authorities early this year [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 17:49

TIL of the "Blinkerwall," a stone wall more than half a mile long made up of more than 1,300 stones and roughly 300 boulders, stretching along the seafloor in the Baltic Sea. It was built roughly 10,000 years ago and was likely used by Stone Age hunters to funnel and trap reindeer [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 16:49

TIL GPS satellites run about 38 microseconds faster per day than clocks on Earth due to Einstein's theory of relativity. If scientists didn't intentionally adjust for this time difference, global GPS tracking would lose accuracy by about 6 miles (11 km) every single day. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 12:49

TIL about Virginia McCullough, who in 2019 murdered her parents after having built up £60,000 of debt in their name. Following their deaths, Virginia lived in their house alongside their bodies for four years before being caught and sentenced to life in prison. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 08:49

TIL Osama bin Ladens translator was so mad about LeBron James going to the Miami Heat he wanted LeBron to apologize to Cleveland [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

30 May 2026 06:49

TIL scientists originally thought melting Arctic sea ice would boost marine life by letting in more sunlight, but it actually triggered a chemical reaction that destroys vital nutrients, permanently starving the base of the food chain. [Source]