Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 08:49

TIL of Chevalière d'Éon. Assigned Male at Birth, d'Éon was legally recognized as a Woman at age 50 by King Louis XIV in 1777 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 05:49

TIL that cockroach milk is one of the most nutritious substances on Earth — 3x richer in calories than buffalo milk — and researchers are already looking into using it in cosmetics and health products. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 04:49

TIL before Pope Francis, the last pope to have a unique papal name was Pope Lando (913-914) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 00:49

TIL Aldyn-ool Sevek was a master of Mongolian throat singing whose sound was said to be impossible to reproduce; he died of throat cancer in 2011. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 22:49

TIL Mexican general Manuel Mier y Terán warned that Texas was slipping from Mexico’s control, and after watching his country descend into chaos and ignore his warnings, he fell on his sword in 1832 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 19:49

TIL that the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO is considered a national park. At 192.83 acres, it is the smallest national park in the U.S., being less than 2% the size of the next smallest park, Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, AR. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 18:49

TIL that 911 Medals of Honor were revoked after the 1917 Medal of Honor Review Board raised the standards necessary for its awarding. Most of those revoked were awarded during the American Civil War simply for reenlisting. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 17:49

TIL Lee Bryant, the actor that famously delivered the line "Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home!" in Airplane (1980), was cast without any knowledge of her being in the Yuban commercial that actually originated the quote. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 15:49

Til 1in 5 measles cases will require hospitalization at an average cost of $43,000 per patient [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 14:49

TIL in 2008, Universal Music Group invested in a startup called Uber, a media-sharing platform that fizzled out quickly. UMG was left with the domain name and in 2010, Uber offered UMG 2% equity in the company for the domain. UMG sold its 2% stake back for $863,000 and its worth roughly $3.46B today [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 11:49

TIL the English word “set” has 430 different meanings listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, giving it the longest dictionary entry at around 60,000 words. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 10:49

TIL that If you travel at 1g acceleration, you will be outside of the Milky Way in about 12 years. You will be outside the observable universe in about 54 years. And if you travel at 1.19g for 100 years, you could witness the heat death of the universe. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 05:49

TIL that Harry S. Truman was the only combat veteran of the First World War to serve as President. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 03:49

TIL You shouldn’t rinse your mouth immediately after bushing your teeth. Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel, leaving it on the teeth for at least 15 minutes after brushing can help make the enamel more resistant to cavity-inducing acids. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 02:49

TIL that Australia is wider than the Moon. Australia's diameter is approximately 4,000 km, while the Moon's is only 3,474 km. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 07:49

TIL the PDF file format was invented by Adobe more than 30 years ago (in 1993) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 05:49

TIL a 14,000 year old puppy buried in Germany survived canine distemper which kills most dogs in under 3 weeks. Archaeologists concluded that its Stone Age owners nursed it through the horrible illness. Then they buried it with them when it died. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

13 March 2026 02:49

TIL about Cpt. Henry Elrod, a Marine aviator who shot down two Japanese aircraft, sank a warship, landed his disabled plane, and organized a ground defense which repulsed enemy attacks on Wake island where he was mortally wounded. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 23:49

TIL that of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States, 229 of them are in Alaska (40%) [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 20:49

TIL That Caffeine Has An Average Half Life of 5 Hours [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 19:49

TIL The United States stores 94% of all electricity in the form of water reservoirs, not in a battery. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 17:49

TIL Shadow of the Colossus, one of the most hauntingly lonely video games of all time, was conceived as a multiplayer game [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 15:49

TIL 99% of commercially produced citric acid is made through fermentation using black mold [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 14:49

TIL William Shatner starred in the 2010 sitcom "Sh*t My Dad Says" based on a popular Twitter account featuring colorful, often profane comments made by the 73-year-old father of writer Justin Halpern. The show lasted one season. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 12:49

TIL At the height of the counter-reformation Pope Julius III made Innocenzo Del Monte, his illiterate boyfriend, a cardinal and kept trying to appoint him to advisory roles, ignoring all pushback. Even after his convictions for serious crimes, Del Monte managed to retain his position [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 11:49

TIL China accelerated a magnetic levitation (maglev) train tech vehicle from 0-700 km/h (435 mph) in 2 seconds in 2025 [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 06:49

TIL Amy Hennig is a famous game developer celebrated for creating the narrative and cinematic foundations for the Legacy of Kain & Uncharted series. She directed and wrote Soul Reaver at Crystal Dynamics before joining Naughty Dog to lead the creator, director and writer of the Uncharted games [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 03:49

TIL that sharks existed before trees. Sharks appeared about 400 million years ago, while the first trees appeared around 350 million years ago. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

12 March 2026 02:49

TIL that the largest class action lawsuit settlement was 206 billion dollars to be paid over 25 years. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

11 March 2026 23:49

TIL about Exploding Head Syndrome. It is a sleep disorder that causes a person to hear loud, imagined noises (explosions, bangs, screams, etc) or see light flashes before falling asleep [Source]