As we move through life, we consistently gather new knowledge to grow and learn as human beings. Although there may be a few specific areas we aim to know very well, building a broader understanding of the world is just as important. It allows us to put forward exciting ideas, connect the dots, and see new patterns we would have missed otherwise. And it’s plenty of fun too!

Thankfully, with the digital world at our fingertips, exploring delicious and intriguing bits of information has never been easier. So it’s time for the newest batch of facts from the well-known corner on Reddit, the 'Today I Learned' online group. Time and again, curious 28 million members of this community exceed everyone’s expectations by passing along the cool trivia they recently found out themselves.

To celebrate infinite knowledge and the never-ending desire to learn something new, we’ve gathered some of the most captivating facts the group has shared on the page. Continue scrolling and upvote the ones you may not have known about! And if you’re in the mood to expand your mental horizons even further, check out Bored Panda’s previous pieces filled with TIL goodness here, here, and right here.

#1

TIL of Mary Anning, who discovered, with her brother, the first ichthyosaur fossil at age 12. She would go on to discover many more fossils and revolutionize the science of paleontology. However, due to being a woman in the early 1800s, she rarely received full credit for her discoveries

Image credits: sexpressed

#2

TIL fairy dust was not mentioned in the original version of Peter Pan, but the author added it as a neccessity to enable the children to fly because "so many children tried [to fly] from their beds and needed surgical attention."

Image credits: mike_pants

#3

TIL; In 1846, Joesph Leidy was the first person to solve a crime using a microscope. A famer claimed the blood on his clothes was chicken blood. Joseph Leidy showed that it was not chicken blood using a microscope

Image credits: A_Bruised_Reed

#4

TIL the asteroid impact that caused the dinosaur extinction set 70% of the world's forests on fire, caused tsunamis that rose to a height of 300ft (100m), and ejected 25 trillion metric tons of debris into the atmosphere that reduced sunlight by up to 90% for a decade

Image credits: vienna95

#5

TIL Robin Williams was offered, and accepted the role of The Joker in the 1989 film, "Batman." Warner Brothers had only made the offer to bait their first choice, Jack Nicholson, into signing on, which he eventually did. Williams was furious, and demanded an apology from the film studio

Image credits: szekeres81

#6

TIL that listening to your favorite music for just 15 minutes a day lowers stress levels, anxiety, sadness and a depressed mood

Image credits: Ok_Ask_733000

#7

TIL Darius McCollum, a New Yorker diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, has been arrested over 30 times for impersonating transit employees, stealing trains and buses, and driving their routes - complete with making safety announcements and passenger stops

Image credits: Str33twise84

#8

TIL Wells Fargo was forced by the feds to rehire a whistleblower employee that reported fraud, and pay him $5.4 million in damages

Image credits: filondo

#9

TIL that the disappearance of D. B. Cooper remains the only unsolved air piracy case in commerical aviation history

Image credits: DarkPhoenix94

#10

TIL the iconic Australian hat is bent up on one side to allow the armed forces maneuver rifles on and off their shoulders without hitting the brim

Image credits: jdoreh

#11

TIL that the most requested funeral song in England is by Monty Python

Image credits: Still-Finger1880

#12

TIL that Pythagoras of The Pythagoras Theorem was a cult leader who claimed he could speak with animals, time travel and had an extreme hatred for Fava Beans

Image credits: chipsandsourcream1

#13

TIL Disney World is legally allowed to build a nuclear plant in Florida under a 1960s law

Image credits: filondo

#14

TIL that an FBI informant secretly wore a wire to breakfast with a city official suspected of bribery, and met the suspect at the WTC Marriott. In the middle of getting a confession, the informant ends up making what is believed to be the only uninterrupted audio recording of the Sept. 11 attack

Image credits: spiritelk25

#15

TIL in July of 2021 a British plane spotter noticed sparks coming off an F-15E Strike Eagle's engine after it took off from RAF Lakenheath. He called the base's switchboard to alert the base and the plane returned safely. The pilot publicly thanked him and gave him his insignia patch

Image credits: Bigred2989-

#16

TIL Arthur Wharton, born Ghana, 1865, became the 100 yard world record holder for 30 years, the world's first professional black soccer player, a cycling champion, a professional cricketer and then a professional rugby player. He died penniless in 1930 and was buried in an unmarked paupers grave

Image credits: Single-Goose7015

#17

TIL In 1948 Ford Motor Company was offered to take over Volkswagen for free. They turned down the offer. Volkswagen is now the second largest car manufacturer in the world

Image credits: Jon_Huntsman

#18

TIL Commercially produced Mayonnaise has a high enough acidity that bacteria growth associated with food-borne illnesses is slowed and the product doesn’t need to be refrigerated

Image credits: LegalizeBonJovi

#19

TIL of Jacklyn H. Lucas. 3 years after joining the Marines at age 14, he snuck onto a ship bound for Iwo Jima, stormed the beach without a rifle and threw himself on top of 2 grenades to protect his team. He survived and earned the Medal of Honor at age 17

Image credits: calvins48

#20

TIL people downloaded computer games over the radio in the 80s

Image credits: Hamsternoir

#21

TIL: A bonsaï tree is not a species of tree. It's just a regular tree. Bonsai is a method of growing trees which aims to create an image of a large mature tree but in miniature

Image credits: Matelot_Pierrot

#22

TIL after basketball player Zion Williamson's foot ripped through his Nike shoe during a game, causing him to slip and sprain his knee, Nike's stock valuation dropped $1.1 Billion the next day

Image credits: d1t0m6

#23

TIL that Batman's suit, arsenal of awesome gadgets, and secret identity were not created by Bob Kane. Gotham City was not even created by him. All these creations belong to Bill Finger, who died penniless while Kane did everything he could to suppress Finger’s involvement in creating the character

Image credits: TheAnimatedBat

#24

TIL Tiger beetles run so fast they temporarily blind themselves. When moving at up to 120 body lengths per second, their environment becomes a blur as their eyes can't gather enough light to form an image

Image credits: ergotpoisoning

#25

TIL The "alarm chemical" released by bees to make the hive attack (Isopropyl Acetate) is the same favouring we use to make banana flavoured sweets, meaning bees can become hostile around those sweets

Image credits: 1FlawedHumanBeing

#26

TIL 1941 after a meteor shower two Canadian Inuit announced they were Jesus and God and convinced people to kill their sled dogs since people will soon be able to fly. 9 people ended up losing their lives as a result of the community spread insanity

Image credits: mskullcap

#27

TIL the design of a skyscraper in London was melting cars and setting buildings on fire. It’s curvilinear shape was causing the problem: The south-facing exterior wall was covered in reflective glass, and because it's concave, it focuses the sun's rays onto a small area

Image credits: rigorousthinker

#28

TIL that there are more Lebanese descendants in Brazil than people living in Lebanon

Image credits: HerrFalkenhayn

#29

TIL that the [passed away people] of the Battle of Waterloo were scavenged for their teeth. Using teeth of the [passed away people] was pretty common at that time and those of young and healthy people were especially sought after. The enormous casulaties of the battle created a big supply which became known as "Waterloo Teeth"

Image credits: Masek_Kiel

#30

TIL that Ford's Theatre refuses to perform the play which Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was [taken away]

Image credits: GreekKnight3

#31

TIL that Bermuda has no natural water source. Each house collects rainwater using white, stepped roofs

Image credits: deliriz

#32

TIL about Srivijaya, a lost 14th century city that ruled Indonesia and much of Southeast Asia for over 600 years but which disappeared without a trace. Its location was recently uncovered when fisherman on the River Musi discovered golden artefacts from the city caught in their nets

Image credits: 1QCS

#33

TIL one of the most mad Roman emperors wasn't actually called 'Caligula'. It was a nickname given to him as a kid by his father's soldiers, while being on campaign with them in Germania. The name means 'little boots' in Latin and is a reference to the child-sized military gear he would wear

Image credits: Pickle_flavored_Mail

#34

TIL that before the Hoover Dam was built, there was a town where Lake Mead now is called St. Thomas. The entire town was purchased by the federal government and abandoned. However, the water level of the lake has fallen so much that parts of the town can be seen and explored

Image credits: Reach-for-the-sky_15

#35

TIL that the British had a POW camp called Trent park during WWII. They would take axis prisoners of war and let them live in luxury, while secretly bugging the house. The program gave the allies lots of intel, such as the location of a V2 rocket facility

Image credits: YEETAWAYLOL

#36

TIL about Princess Susanna Caroline Matilda, a convicted thief who escaped to America in 1770 and lived like a queen after she convinced everyone she was royalty

Image credits: CrimeCrisis

#37

TIL for the censorship case against Ulysses (a notoriously hard novel to read), the US trial judge forced himself read the entire book so he could judge it properly

Image credits: yup987

#38

TIL only one Egyptian pharaonic tomb has been discovered completely intact, that of Psusennes I (1047-1001 BC). Despite its fame and the quality of its artifacts, the tomb of Tutankhamun was robbed twice in antiquity

Image credits: superamericaman

#39

TIL that 83% of radiologists missed a gorilla that was inserted into images of the lungs during a nodule detection task

Image credits: awkwarddoublehawk

#40

TIL of Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archeologist who located the ancient city of Troy in the 1870s among other feats. Modern archeologists disapprove of his methods - using dynamite to blow up the site and looking through the debris

Image credits: 1900grs

#41

TIL Hudson Bay and its shores are populated by more Beluga whales than people

Image credits: innergamedude

#42

TIL 'Jeopardy!' superchampion and eventual host Ken Jennings won so many games during his initial streak that he admitted to fabricating anecdotes for the show's interview portion just so that he would have something to chat about with Alex Trebek

Image credits: ExtendJuanSoto

#43

TIL World War II Spitfires only had about 20 seconds of 'gun time' before running out of ammo, making most movie depictions wildly inaccurate

Image credits: penkster

#44

TIL about Sisamnes who was a judge that took a bribe in court and passed an unfair sentence. He was skinned alive and his leather was used to make a chair that his son had to sit in as his son was appointed the next judge. There was a later painting made depicting him being skinned alive

Image credits: sheepery

#45

TIL about Bob Lemmons, an expert "Mustanger." Freed by the Civil War, he learned to tame horses. Usually herds of wild mustangs were run down by groups, but Lemmons worked alone. Riding with the herd for several weeks, he'd gradually take over, mount the stallion and lead the horses into a corral

Image credits: marmorset

#46

TIL about Rei Dunois who, using body prosthetics and makeup successfully passed himself off as a female cosplayer. When he eventually admitted who he was in 2020, his following increased

Image credits: Black_Magic_M-66

#47

TIL "Cityspeak", the pidgin street language incorporating Japanese/Spanish/German/etc.. used in Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 wasn't in Philip K. Dick's book, but was actually devised by "Gaff" actor Edward James Olmos while researching his character for the film

Image credits: Uncle_Junk

#48

TIL In 1014, Byzantine Emperor Basil II captured several thousand Bulgarian soldiers, put them into groups of 100, and blinded 99 in every group. The last soldiers had only one eye gouged out and were ordered to lead their blind friends home. Upon seeing this, Tsar Samuel died of a heart attack

Image credits: Grinch89

#49

TIL: Back in 1910, Citibank took over the national bank of Haiti, which besides being the sole commercial bank also served as the Haitian treasury and then in 1915 after both withholding Haitian funds and paying rebels to destabilize the country, the bank pressured the US Government to occupy Haiti

Image credits: app4that

#50

TIL Oldest known Homo Sapiens is over 233,000 years old, 30,000+ years more than we thought

Image credits: sgfgross

#51

TIL that Duke Nukem Forever holds the Guinness World record for "Longest development period for a videogame"

Image credits: DaveOJ12

#52

TIL testicles make several million sperm per day — about 1,500 per second

Image credits: lilman21

#53

TIL there are "Harbinger households": neighborhoods that consistently choose failed products and therefore could predict market failures

Image credits: oskarw85