Today I Learned 🎓

18 April 2026 05:49

TIL that in 1685 King Louis XIV had a molar pulled due to toothache but because of poor hygiene, his mouth became infected and the doctors decided to pull out all his remaining teeth on the upper jaw. The king would have had to endure this operation without the relief of any anesthetics. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 April 2026 02:49

TIL about Lucía Zárate, the lightest adult person in history. She weighed 4.7 pounds (2.1 kg). [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 23:49

TIL Mae Laborde began her acting career at age 93 and appeared in prominent movies and shows like Pineapple express, the heartbreak kid and Always sunny in Philadelphia. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 23:49

TIL Wendy's chocolate Frosty is actually half chocolate and half vanilla because owner Dave Thomas thought full chocolate would be too overpowering [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 20:49

TIL that during his six-day stay in Malta, Napoleon Bonaparte abolished slavery and feudalism, restricted church power, created a public education system, set up a postal service, reformed national administration, framed a family code and nominated twelve judges [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 19:49

TIL about Hanafuda, a type of Japanese playing cards that has 12 suits (one for each month) of four cards each. With the historical design of the cards constantly evolving to stay one step ahead of the Shoguns ban on playing cards. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 18:49

TIL why James Bonds preference of a "shaken and not stirred" martini is controversial. Drinks containing only alcoholic ingredients are almost always stirred to preserve clarity and to avoid over-dilution, among other things. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 17:49

TIL there is a purpose-bred horse meat industry in Canada for live-export to Japan [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 14:49

TIL in plant biology and agriculture, Vavilovian mimicry (also crop mimicry or weed mimicry) is a form of mimicry in plants where a weed evolves to share characteristics with a crop plant through generations of involuntary artificial selection. Oats are one example, mimicking wheat [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 12:49

TIL That in 1999 the Philippines Navy intentionally grounded a ship on a reef to create a naval base and that in 2026 sailors still occupy the decaying vessel to contest China’s attempt to take over the region. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 08:49

TIL In 1974, R&B singer Al Green's girlfriend, Mary Woodson, became upset when Green refused to marry her. She doused him with a pot of boiling grits as he was preparing for bed in the bathroom, causing second-degree burns over his body. Shortly after, Woodson fatally shot herself with his handgun. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 06:49

TIL that during the filming of the British film Going Somewhere in the Philippines in 2010, village watchman Eddie Cuizon jumped on actor Kirk Abella's motorcycle and fatally shot him after mistaking him for an actual masked gunman. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 02:49

TIL Voyager will be one light day away from Earth in Novermber 2026 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 00:49

TIL that s 2018 study found neck ties can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5 per cent [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 April 2026 23:49

TIL when WWII started in Europe in 1939 John Templeton purchased 100 shares each of every NYSE-listed company that was selling for less than $1 a share ($23 in 2,025) at the time (104 companies, 37 in bankruptcy). When US industry picked up as a result of the war, he made many times his money back. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 April 2026 03:49

TIL The Duckbill was a large rock formation at Oregon's Cape Kiwanda State Natural Area. On August 29, 2016 it was toppled by a group of teenagers who said they did it as "a public service" after a friend broke their leg on the rock. Despite being filmed in the act the perpetrators were never caught [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 April 2026 01:49

TIL that the most complex character in any known language is 𰻞, pronounced biang. It forms part of the Chinese name for a noodle dish and is made with 42 to 70 strokes, most commonly 58. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 23:49

TIL Arnold Schwarzenegger's "big problem" with the script for Terminator 2 was that he didn't kill anybody; James Cameron responded "They'll never see that coming. Nobody will guess it." Arnold still felt that as 'The Terminator' he should kill people, but Cameron was eventually able to convince him [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 21:49

TIL, A unknown Union soldier was discovered at the Antietam battlefield in 2009. He was between the ages of 17 and 19. His remains were returned to New York for burial 147 years after his death. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 20:49

TIL Tony Dalton (from Better Call Saul) was once the host of a Jackass style show that was canceled after an episode where he encouraged a 19 year old to drink 45 shots of tequila. The young man died and the venue was later demolished. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 18:49

TIL a woman was awarded $2.5m after a 1.2-inch chicken bone pierced her esophagus while eating at a Round Table pizza restaurant. She required more than 11 surgeries and spent months on feeding tubes. Round Table's supplier of chicken strips had 206 customer complaints about bones between 2005-2010. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 17:49

TIL When Kate Bush recorded backup vocals for Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers", the sound techs we're all infatuated with Kate and there was a "huge race getting out to the control room to see who would get there first to adjust her microphones or fix her headphones." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 16:49

TIL 3 years after a cat named Clyde disappeared from the owner's family home in Australia's island state of Tasmania, he was discovered 2,400 miles into the Australian Outback. "No one has a clue" how he managed the 185-mile sea journey from Tasmania to mainland Australia & than over 2K miles more. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 14:49

TIL that Ferrari is the Italian surname equivalent of the English surname; Smith, in that they're both occupational surnames meaning blacksmith. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 09:49

TIL the founder of chiropractic said the idea came from a ghost [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 07:49

TIL that the states of Maine and Vermont each have record-high temperatures (105 F) higher than that of Puerto Rico (104 F) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 05:49

TIL The founding members of The Village People found the rest of the band by putting an ad in a theater trade paper that read: "Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 00:49

TIL that there is a cave in Kenya that contains a virus with an 88% mortality rate. And it is currently open to the public. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

17 April 2026 00:49

TIL that Harriet Quimby, flew the English Channel solo on 16 April 1912 using only a compass and watch - keeping warm with a hot water bottle - but the Titanic disaster the day before overshadowed her achievement, and now she's almost unknown. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 April 2026 21:49

TIL that - 89% of surveyed clinical psychologists still believed that memories for childhood trauma can be “blocked out” for many years [Source]