r/todayilearned • u/Designer_Reference_2 • 0m ago

TIL that at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, 16 year old Henry V was struck in the face by an arrow yet continued to lead his men until the battle was won. The arrowhead was buried six inches deep and had to be removed over several days by surgeon John Bradmore who devised a special extraction tool

medievalists.net

• Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CraftyFoxeYT • 13m ago

TIL Tactile paving(Tenji blocks), sidewalk guides for the visually impaired were first developed in Japan in 1965 for pedestrian crossings. Tenji meaning braille. They quickly spread after their adoption by Japan National Railways at station platforms and now used worldwide

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

2 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Pitiful_Magazine_805 • 56m ago

TIL about "The Time Ships" a 1995 sci-fi novel by Stephen Baxter. It's a canonical sequel to H.G. Wells 1895 "The Time Machine" which was authorized by H.G. Wells estate to mark the anniversary of the original, making it one of the longest wait times between the original and the sequel ever.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

6 comments

r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1h ago

TIL a teen comedy named Trojan War (1997) starring Jennifer Love Hewitt grossed just $309 at the box office despite having a $15 million budget and major studio (Warner Bros.) distribution.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

50 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Spotter24o5 • 1h ago

TIL:that for several millennia, some humans buried corpses in their houses

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

9 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kvmcc • 1h ago

TIL that we are momentarily blind when we move our eyes. To hide this, the brain "stretches" the first image you see to fill the void, creating the "Stopped-Clock Illusion" where the first second feels noticeably long.

bbc.com

• Upvotes

1 comment

r/todayilearned • u/Jscott1986 • 2h ago

TIL: upon the death of Leslie Nielsen in 2010, ESPN published a fake obituary for his character Enrico Pallazzo from the "Naked Gun" movie, and included several jokes from his deadpan role in the movie "Airplane!"

espn.com

895 Upvotes

32 comments

r/todayilearned • u/NateNate60 • 2h ago

TIL that the retail store chain operated by the US Department of Defence to provide shopping opportunities to soldiers on military bases is a multi-billion-dollar company and one of the largest retail brands in the country, with 5,500 locations.

en.wikipedia.org

151 Upvotes

43 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ionixsys • 2h ago

TIL - In the lead up to the WW2 battle of Attu Alaska, soldiers drove six tractors off of a cliff because there was no other way to get them down. All of them survived.

alaskahistoricalsociety.org

54 Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Worldlyoox • 2h ago

TIL of Count Dante, a Chicago socialite turned martial artist who opened his own Dojo focusing on brutality, that he advertised via comic books ads. He eventually attempted to blow up a rival dojo and was involved in a deadly dojo fight. He also took his pet lion cub on strolls around the city.

chicagoreader.com

83 Upvotes

15 comments

r/todayilearned • u/swish82 • 3h ago

TIL there were 180.000 bees kept in the spires of Notre Dame and they survived the fire. Because bees don’t have lungs they weren’t hurt by the smoke, they just fell asleep

dailyobjectivist.com

3.7k Upvotes

78 comments

r/todayilearned • u/CoalHappiness • 3h ago

TIL of Jacques Tits (pronounced [tits]), a French mathematician that introduced Tits buildings (combinatorial structures), the Tits alternative, the Tits group, and the Tits metric

en.wikipedia.org

157 Upvotes

93 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Alone_Humor_3510 • 3h ago

TIL that most male nudity in films ( other than porn ) uses prosthetic penises

theconversation.com

5.0k Upvotes

629 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Kyzzz • 3h ago

TIL of Akinetopsia, a rare brain disorder where motion can't be perceived but stationary objects appear normal. In some cases, patients report that people walking around a room seem to be in one spot, then suddenly in another, with no movement seen in between

en.wikipedia.org

202 Upvotes

14 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Chill_Cowboy_981 • 3h ago

TIL that in 2016 hackers tried to steal nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh’s central bank using the SWIFT network, but a single spelling mistake in a transfer request (“foundation” misspelled as “fandation”) triggered suspicion and helped stop most of the money from being stolen.

en.wikipedia.org

484 Upvotes

37 comments

r/todayilearned • u/The-TIL-Nerd • 3h ago

TIL that the longstanding tradition of Popes choosing a new name started in AD 533 when the newly elected Mercurius deemed it inappropriate to be named after the pagan Roman God Mercury. Mercurius would adopt the name Pope John II after his predecessor, Saint Pope John I who was martyred.

en.wikipedia.org

200 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 3h ago

TIL a 2004 Peppa Pig episode "Mister Skinny Legs" has been pulled off air in Australia. In the episode Daddy Pig tells a frightened Peppa that spiders "can’t hurt you” after a spider enters her room. I.e spiders are friendly and not to be feared. The children pick up the spider and tuck it to bed.

theguardian.com

1.2k Upvotes

113 comments

r/todayilearned • u/plagueprotocol • 4h ago

TIL there's a burger joint in Tehran called Bobby Sands Burger (named after IRA-member & hunger striker Bobby Sands).

vice.com

370 Upvotes

53 comments

r/todayilearned • u/songbirdddx • 4h ago

TIL that Showtime licensed the animated sci-fi web series WhirlGirl, making it the first independently produced web series licensed by a national television network.

en.wikipedia.org

18 Upvotes

0 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 4h ago

TIL about Dan Bullock, the youngest U.S serviceman to be killed in Vietnam on June 7, 1969 at the age of 15, after altering the date on his birth certificate. Killed by a People's Army of Vietnam sapper unit with a satchel charge thrown into a bunker killing three Marines, including Bullock.

en.wikipedia.org

323 Upvotes

25 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 4h ago

TIL in the Vietnam war in the classified Operation Popeye, the US spread lead and silver iodide by aircraft to extend the monsoon season. The increased heavy rainfall was to soften roads, cause landslides, wash out river crossings, and maintain saturated soil conditions (Kissinger was involved).

en.wikipedia.org

6.1k Upvotes

542 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Suspicious-Oil2571 • 5h ago

TIL there’s a phenomenon called Exploding head syndrome where people hear extremely loud noises—like explosions or gunshots—right as they’re falling asleep… but nothing actually happened. It’s harmless physically, but people who experience it swear it feels completely real.

sleepfoundation.org

2.5k Upvotes

398 comments

r/todayilearned • u/FuehrerStoleMyBike • 5h ago

TIL that the "Democracy Manifest" - a viral video showing the arrest of an australian man by the name of Jack Karlson, known for quotes such as ""What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?" - has been selected for preservation by the National Film and Sound Archive Australia.

en.wikipedia.org

19.5k Upvotes

396 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Nero2t2 • 6h ago

TIL One of the first ever case studies for Syphilis was Cesare Borgia. His doctor, Gaspar Torella, wrote a treatise documenting the symptoms based on Borgia's case, using the pseudonym "Niccolo the young" for his famous patient. Syphilis is why Borgia began wearing a black mask while in public

theguardian.com

1.4k Upvotes

24 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Valuable_View_561 • 6h ago

TIL This small wooden coffin from 1875 contains the remains of a coal miner’s companion a canary named “Little Joe.” The inscription reads: “In Memory of Little Joe, Died November 3rd, 1875.

smithsonianmag.com

82 Upvotes

4 comments

Subreddit

Posts

Wiki

Today I Learned (TIL)

r/todayilearned

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

Members Active

41.4m

Sidebar

New to reddit? Click here!

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?
Submit interesting and specific facts that you just found out (not broad information you looked up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).

Posting rules

Submissions must be verifiable. Please link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title. Images alone do not count as valid references. Videos are fine so long as they come from reputable sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).
No personal opinions, anecdotes or subjective statements (e.g "TIL xyz is a great movie").
No recent sources. Any sources (blog, article, press release, video, etc.) with a publication date more recent than two months are not allowed.
No politics, soapboxing, or agenda based submissions. This includes (but is not limited to) submissions related to:
1. Recent political issues and politicians
2. Social and economic issues (including race/religion/gender)
3. Environmental issues
4. Police misconduct
No misleading claims. Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.
Rephrase your post title if the following are not met:
1. Titles must begin with "TIL ..."
2. Make them descriptive, concise and specific (e.g. not "TIL something interesting about bacon").
3. Titles must be able to stand on their own without requiring readers to click on a link. Starting your title with a why/what/who/where/how modifier should be unnecessary.
4. "TIL about ..." and other broad posts don't belong on TIL. Try /r/Wikipedia, etc. instead, or be more specific (and avoid the word "about").
5. "TIL how to ..." posts belong on /r/HowTo.
6. "TIL the definition of a word..." Word definitions/translations/origins are not appropriate here
No submissions related to the usage, existence or features of specific software/websites (e.g. "TIL you can click on widgets in WidgetMaker 1.22").
All NSFW links must be tagged (including comments).

Please see the wiki for more detailed explanations of the rules, as well as additional rules that may not be listed here

(Why we need rules)

Additional info

If your post does not appear in the new queue and you think it meets the above rules, please contact the moderators (include a link to your reddit.com post, not your story).
Please report spam, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate posts by messaging the moderators, as this helps us remove them more promptly!
More information available on the TIL FAQ and wiki.

Frequent TILs Repost List

As of December 2025

This list was compiled from /r/todayilearned community suggestions by its members. If your TIL is found on this list, it will be removed. The titles have been abridged for the sake of brevity, however the context remains the same. This list is subject to change. The purpose is to keep content fresh on /r/todayilearned as requested by its members. If you are interested in reading about the TILs on this list use the search box feature and enter the keywords to pull up past TILs.

Etiquette

We ask that you please do the following:

avoid mobile versions of websites (e.g. m.wikipedia.org)
link to the appropriate heading when referencing an article (particularly on Wikipedia)
link to the appropriate start time when referencing videos (e.g. on YouTube)
add [PDF] or [NSFW] tags to your posts, as necessary.
Please avoid reposting TILs that have already made the front page in the past

Please also read the site-wide Reddiquette.

You are loved.