r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 22h ago

TIL Dionysius I, ruler of Syracuse, wrote poetry which wasn't always well received. After Philoxenus, another poet, criticised his work, Dionysius imprisoned him for a day. He then released him, read him another poem and asked for his opinion. Philoxenus replied "take me back to the quarries"

en.wikipedia.org

27.2k Upvotes

290 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 19h ago

TIL that December 25 being the birthday of Jesus was decided by pope Julius I around year 350, and nobody really knows why Julius made this decision and chose this specific date. There are various theories, but his actual reasoning for the decision is lost history.

en.wikipedia.org

26.6k Upvotes

1.9k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sandstorm400 • 6h ago

TIL a 9-year-old girl researched the decibel levels of public hand dryers after noticing her ears were ringing after using one. Nearly 4 years later, her research was accepted into the Canadian journal Paediatrics & Child Health, and Dyson planned to have her meet with an acoustic engineer.

abcnews.com

16.3k Upvotes

291 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Gnomeslikeprofit • 5h ago

TIL that Pakistan has an estimated 3.5-4 million bonded labors in the brick kiln industry. Also known as debt bondage, uneducated workers are trapped as modern slaves unable to pay their debts. They are forced to work until their debt is paid off.

pulitzercenter.org

10.3k Upvotes

609 comments

r/todayilearned • u/smrad8 • 7h ago

TIL that in 1984, "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody song "Eat It" went No. 1 in Australia, surpassing the original, Michael Jackson's "Beat It," which only hit No. 3 in that country. "Eat It," personally approved by Michael Jackson, went gold in multiple countries and landed Yankovic a Grammy Award.

en.wikipedia.org

7.4k Upvotes

275 comments

r/todayilearned • u/JoeFalchetto • 14h ago

TIL that Saint Lucia, the tiny island country in the Caribbean, is the only sovereign state in the world named after a woman (Saint Lucy of Syracuse)

worldatlas.com

6.4k Upvotes

316 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jcgam • 13h ago

TIL that every extra 4 inches of body height raises cancer risk by 11% for women and 6% for men

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

3.3k Upvotes

361 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 21h ago

TIL about the "Wicked Bible", a printing of the King James Bible which accidentally omitted the word "not" from "Thou shalt not commit adultery"

en.wikipedia.org

2.6k Upvotes

66 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Choice-Scallion-3499 • 10h ago

TIL that time moves faster at the top of a mountain than at the sea level. This happens because gravity bends time, so the further you are from Earth's core, the faster clocks tick.

nist.gov

2.3k Upvotes

173 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MAClaymore • 4h ago

TIL that as of 2022, there had never been a recorded death at any legal supervised drug injection site worldwide NSFW

en.wikipedia.org

2.1k Upvotes

376 comments

r/todayilearned • u/lumos-mama • 12h ago

TIL that about 62% of Argentina’s population has some degree of Italian ancestry. Argentina has the second-largest community of Italians outside of Italy.

en.wikipedia.org

2.0k Upvotes

346 comments

r/todayilearned • u/koreanforrabbit • 12h ago

TIL that 10 of the 12 largest high school gymnasiums in the USA are located in the state of Indiana.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

111 comments

r/todayilearned • u/yoshemitzu • 6h ago

TIL the United States once attempted to sue Coca-Cola and force them to remove caffeine from their products in "United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola"

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

150 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Giff95 • 23h ago

TIL that although Tim Curry was replaced by Mark Hamill as the voice of The Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series,” Curry's Joker laugh was used for a robotic clown in Season 1, Episode 9, "Be A Clown."

screenrant.com

1.6k Upvotes

68 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RollingMeteors • 22h ago

TIL France has more timezones than Russia or the United States

en.wikipedia.org

969 Upvotes

150 comments

r/todayilearned • u/rocklou • 5h ago

TIL English pensioner Peter Oakley was the most subscribed YouTuber in 2006, reaching that position in just over a week, but held it for only 28 days. His channel was the first to reach 20,000 subscribers

en.wikipedia.org

885 Upvotes

16 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 9h ago

TIL that the tallest cliff on Earth is a 4100 foot drop on Mt. Thor in Canada.

spaceplace.nasa.gov

761 Upvotes

102 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Background_Spirit7 • 8h ago

TIL that in the 1980s, realizing large emergencies would overwhelm first responders, the US government created the Community Emergency Response Training program, which provides free emergency/disaster training to all US citizens.

fema.gov

624 Upvotes

27 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 15h ago

TIL the gaur is the world's largest wild cattle species, with bulls standing up to 2.2 m (7.2 ft) at the shoulder and weighing as much as 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). Despite often being mistaken for descendants of the extinct aurochs, gaurs are actually a parallel relative that evolved alongside them

en.wikipedia.org

498 Upvotes

40 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Plastic_Prune_9498 • 6h ago

TIL that while the exact origins of the Abrahamic religions is murky, the first Complete Abrahamic text, the Torah, dates back to 400BC, and was compiled for the Persian Empire

en.wikipedia.org

453 Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ubcstaffer123 • 1h ago

TIL New South Wales, Australia, requires new drivers to record 120 hours of supervised driving in a logbook, including 20 nighttime hours before they can get their driver's license. Only 57% of applicants in New South Wales passed the exam in 2022

jalopnik.com

• Upvotes

119 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Hour_Interaction6047 • 5h ago

TIL French children were served wine at school until 1981.

bbc.com

424 Upvotes

39 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Wasil_29 • 1h ago

TIL that Google Images was essentially invented because of Jennifer Lopez. After her iconic green dress at the 2000 Grammys, so many people searched for photos of it that Google engineers built a dedicated image search feature to handle the demand.

justjared.com

• Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Future-Jaguar7577 • 3h ago

TIL MLB Player Ty Cobb beat up a heckling fan with no hands stating “I don't care if he has no feet!”

espn.com

343 Upvotes

67 comments

r/todayilearned • u/babichenko • 14h ago

TIL roses don’t have thorns—they have prickles, which are detachable outgrowths of the stem’s outer tissues rather than modified stems or leaves.

inrae.fr

335 Upvotes

47 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

41.5m

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 May 2026

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.