Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL the value of a taxi medallion (permit allowing a taxicab to operate) in New York City peaked in 2013 at over $1 million. By 2019, medallions were being sold for as low as $136,000. Since many cab drivers took out loans to buy when values were high, many have been forced to declare bankruptcy. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL rate of change in speed is "acceleration", but rate of change for acceleration is called a "jerk" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL Lew Ayres, who played Paul Bäumer in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), was a WWII conscientious objector which Erich Maria Remarque, the novel's author, disapproved of. He stated: “I am very sorry. I didn’t expect it to have an effect like this. I think we all should fight Hitlerism." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL a Catholic priest invented the Big Bang Theory. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 20:49

TIL: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, and several other children's mystery books all had the same publisher, Stratemeyer Syndicate, and were all largely authored pseudonymously. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 18:49

TIL that Hasekura Tsunenaga was, in all likelihood, the first Japanese to cross the Atlantic. He set sail from Tsukinoura, travelled overland through Mexico, then sailed to Europe, where he visited Spain, popped briefly to France, and travelled to Rome for an audience with the Pope in 1615. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL Saudi Arabia accidentally printed thousands of textbooks containing this image of Yoda sitting next to King Faisal while he signed the 1945 UN charter [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 15:49

TIL Rabies causes excess saliva production while triggering hydrophobia to prevent saliva dilution while swallowing therefore maximizing it's spread [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 13:49

TIL that between 1915 and 1926, Encephalitis Lethargica, also known as sleeping sickness, swept the world. It left people frozen, awake but unable to move or speak. Half a million died or became trapped in their bodies. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished without explanation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 07:49

TIL in 2017 a woman received new hands from a male donor after she underwent Asia's first upper arm double-hand transplant. To the surprise of her doctors, the limbs (which were hairier & darker) became more feminine & lighter over time, resulting in their color being closer to her own skin tone. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 06:49

TIL that after the Battle of Waterloo, sugar factories were specifically built near the battlefield to mass-extract soldiers’ bones and char them into bleach for beet sugar — meaning 19th-century Europeans unknowingly sweetened their tea with the remains of fallen men [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL The Rosetta Stone, which was used to learn to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, contained text about tax exemptions for temples and priests. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL in 2020, archaeologists discovered a perfectly preserved food restaurant in Pompeii from 2,000-years-ago, complete with painted counters and traces of ancient meals like duck, snails, and goat stew still in their containers. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL that the English names Ian, Shaun, and John all originate from the same ancient Hebrew name, Yohanan, meaning "God is gracious." [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

20 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL that North Korea made their exchange rate against the dollar at 2.16 because of Kim Jong Il's birthday on 16 February [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

22 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL that Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea, was raised in a Presbyterian Christian family, with his Grandfather being a minister, and his father being an elder in the Church. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 23:49

TIL 7 of the 8 US Presidents that have died in office were all elected in years divisible by 20 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL when Marquis de Sade died in 1814, his son burned all of his unpublished manuscripts, and his descendants tried to suppress his work for over a century. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 21:49

TIL The movie, "The Land before Time" was planned to have no dialogue. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted the film to be similar to "The Rite of Spring" in Disney's Fantasia. But the idea was abandoned to make the film appealing to children. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 19:49

TIL about Eddie Eagan, the only person to win gold at a summer and winter olympics in different events (in boxing and the bobsled), and who also studied at Yale, Harvard and Oxford, practised as an attorney and served in both WW1 and WW2 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 17:49

TIL Edward Craven Walker; the inventor of the lava lamp, was a pioneer in naturism in film. He got around censors by not showing pubic hair, and directed the first naturist film to receive public release in the UK. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 16:49

TIL about the variability hypothesis, the hypothesis that human males generally display greater variability in traits than human females do. Sex-differences in variability have been observed in many abilities and traits – including physical, psychological and genetic ones. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 13:49

TIL about Eddie Eagan, the only person to win gold at a summer and winter olympics in different events (in boxing and the bobsled), and who also studied at Yale, Harvard and Oxford, practised as an attorney and served in both WW1 and WW2 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 08:49

TIL the Sateré-Mawé tribe use bullet ant stings in a warrior rite where boys wear gloves filled with hundreds of venomous ants for 10 minutes, causing paralysis, hallucinations, and days of shaking, and must endure this 20 times to complete initiation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 07:49

TIL a man noticed a loophole in a lottery called Winfall. When the jackpot hit $5m & had no winner, it was split between those who matched 3, 4 & 5 numbers. If he spent $1,100 on 1,100 tickets, he'd have 1 four-number winner & 18 three-number winners, earning $800 profit. He netted $7.75m over 9 yrs [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 05:49

TIL that the 'G' in 'G-Spot' is named from the German Gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg that characterized it as erogenous area of the vagina that, when stimulated, may lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and potential female ejaculation. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 02:49

TIL that Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea aren’t owned by Disney, they’re just controlled by a company that rents the characters [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

21 Jul 2025 00:49

TIL that Joe Rogan and My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way are first cousins. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

20 Jul 2025 22:49

TIL in 2023, archeologists found a Roman-era sword in the Judean desert completely unscathed and still sharp after nearly 2,000 years. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

20 Jul 2025 20:49

TIL the word's oldest head of state is Cameroon's President Paul Biya, who has been in office since 1982 and is seeking another seven-year term. He is 92. [Source]