Today I Learned 🎓

16 March 2026 05:49

TIL Medieval peasants likely got more rest and more days off than we do today (despite being far less wealthier than us) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 March 2026 03:49

TIL the federal courts publish the outcome of every bankruptcy case in a free public database. The government's own data shows 48% of Chapter 13 cases get dismissed, and in some districts it's over 90%. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 March 2026 01:49

TIL the sole cure for late stage African sleeping sickness, arsenic, was suggested first due to an anecdote of a man who survived a snake bite using arsenic. Although arsenic has no effect on snake bites or most diseases, by pure chance it happened to be the cure to African sleeping sickness. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 23:49

TIL in a 1995 Barbara Walters interview, Jim Carrey revealed that he turned down a $10 million offer to star in 'The Mask II' because his experiences on Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls convinced him that reprising a character he had previously played offered him no challenges as an actor. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 22:49

TIL that ties are possible at the Academy Awards. It has happened 6 times in history, most recently in 2012. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 21:49

TIL that after WWI, while much of the Ottoman Empire was carved up by the Allies, Turkey fought back and resisted efforts to partition Anatolia, leading to the modern Turkish Republic [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 20:49

TIL WWE wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife and 7 year old son, then committed sucide in 2007. Doctors later discovered that his brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 19:49

TIL Mississippi law imposes a penalty of 6 months in county jail and $500 fine, "if any man and woman shall unlawfully cohabit, whether in adultery or fornication.” For conviction, the statue states it is sufficient to prove the cohabitating couple is having “habitual sexual intercourse.” [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 18:49

TIL 2000 years ago, in order to build a high-quality cavalry force, the Chinese took the initiative to invade Central Asia and destroyed a Hellenized kingdom. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 16:49

TIL that Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro), the Joker (Heath Ledger & Joaquin Phoenix) and Anita (Rita Moreno & Ariana DeBose) are the 3 characters whose portrayals won Academy awards for two different persons. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 11:49

TIL about the hobble skirt, a short-lived fashion trend where the wearer's stride was impeded. They were directly responsible for several deaths. The fashion only lasted from about 1908 to 1914. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 04:49

TIL when Yuri Gagarin (the first person in space) landed on earth he had to ask where a phone was in order to let people know he was back on Earth [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 00:49

TIL national park ranger Margaret Anderson blocked a car heading to the Paradise Recreation stop at Mt. Rainier where there were numerous visitors. She was shot and killed by the driver but he fled on foot and did not go up to Paradise. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 March 2026 22:49

TIL that the naturopath and author of such books as "The Cure for All Cancers," "The Cure for all Diseases," and "The Prevention of all Cancers" died in 2009 from cancer [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 March 2026 20:49

TIL The only recorded collision between a car and a submarine happened in Sweden in 1961, when a driverless Volvo rolled downhill into a docked submarine. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 March 2026 04:49

TIL a fisherman was federally prosecuted for throwing undersized fish back into the sea under a law meant to stop Enron-style document destruction because prosecutors argued a fish counted as a "tangible object." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 March 2026 01:49

TIL that economist and philosopher Adam Smith was kidnapped by vagrants when he was 4 years old. He was later found unharmed [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

16 March 2026 00:49

TIL Taylor Swift sends flowers to Kelly Clarkson after every "Taylor's Version" album re-release to thank her for suggesting that Taylor "go in & re-record all the songs that U don't own the masters on". At the time, Taylor was upset that the masters of her first 6 albums were sold to a third party. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 23:49

TIL Chronic Radiation Syndrome/Sickness (CRS) is caused by exposure to elevated levels of radiation(but not enough to cause Acute Sickness) for a period of weeks or months, resulting in wasting and scurvy-like symptoms. It is heavily documented in Eastern literature, yet rarely in Western sources [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 22:49

TIL that with a score of 0.230 Middle Juba in Somalia is the subnational region with the lowest Human Development Index in the world [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 20:49

TIL about wholphins (portmanteau of whale and dolphin) an extremely rare cetacean hybrid born from a mating of a female common bottlenose dolphin with a male false killer whale. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 19:49

TIL there's evidence that the left nostril tends to be more dominant and open, especially with right-handed people. It's part of nasal cycling, where one nasal is always more open than the other. They typically switch every few hours. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 19:49

TIL that after French soldier La Tour d'Auvergne died in 1800, his name was still called at every roll call and a sergeant would answer "Died on the field of honor." Napoleon had honored him as "First Grenadier of France." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 17:49

TIL Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama also worked in the video game industry. He was the character designer for Dragon Quest and helped developed Chrono Trigger. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 14:49

TIL Lenin believed Stalin was too crude and this defect was unacceptable for the position of General Secretary. He was looking for a plan in 1923 to remove Stalin with someone "more tolerant, more polite and more attentive towards comrades, less capricious, etc." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 06:49

TIL according to Einstein's relativity, the past still exists: every moment is a permanent coordinate in spacetime. When his friend Besso died, Einstein wrote: For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future only has the meaning of an illusion, though a persistent one. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

15 March 2026 01:49

TIL 8% of human DNA is made from viruses [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 March 2026 22:49

TIL that, despite smoking on an aircraft being illegal, commercial aircraft are still legally required to equip ashtrays near lavatories in case someone does smoke. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 March 2026 21:49

TIL Kaiser Wilhelm II was on vacation when WW1 started. Upon his return Kaiser was furious at Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg over ultimatum saying "How did it all happen?" He offered resignation as apology but Wilhelm refused to accept it stating "You've made this stew, now you're going to eat it!" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

14 March 2026 19:49

TIL online clothing orders have a return rate of 32%, which dwarfs the return rates of other e-commerce sectors (e.g. just 7% in consumer electronics). [Source]