31 Interesting, Fascinating, And Historical Facts That Will Rouse Your Curiosity

Today is a perfect day to learn something new.

Filip

• Published in Interesting
• April 14, 2023

When we were kids, learning new things came so easily to us. We all picked up lessons from everyone and everything around us.

A child's curiosity is the strongest incentive to explore anything in the world. But as we become older, our capacity for memorization and learning, as well as our level of interest, gradually declines.

We're probably not too proud of that fact, but it's true that interest and free time to learn new information must wane over time. Nonetheless, if you want to learn something new, you've come to the perfect place.

We hope you're in the mood to embrace your child's curiosity and learn some fascinating things you didn't know before because we have prepared a list of astonishing facts from the Today I Learned subreddit below. This particular community is among the most valued resource on the internet for education, satisfying the curious mind and intellect.

The community was established on December 28, 2008. Since then, it has grown steadily and currently has more than 32.1 million members.

It has become a destination for daily educational and intriguing facts, and the best part is that TIL is basically a limitless stream of information. So whenever you want to learn something new, you can do it here.

1. "TIL One in four American cowboys were black."

2. TIL - Arabian Oryx

"TIL The Arabian Oryx became extinct in the wild by the early 1970s but was saved in zoos and private reserves and was reintroduced into the wild starting in 1980. In 2011, it was the first animal to revert to vulnerable status on the IUCN Red List after previously being listed as extinct."

3. "TIL The aardwolf knows not to destroy its food sources."

"Aardwolves eat part of a termite mound, leave it, and return a few months later when the colony has rebuilt so it can have another meal. An aardwolf keeps track of mounds it attacked and can eat 250,000 termites in a single night."

4. "TIL of "The Paradox of Choice"."

"Research indicates that when we are given too many options to choose from, we tend to end up less satisfied than if we had fewer options to choose from. Increased choice leads to higher expectations, followed by regret and self-blame."

5. TIL - Walter Orthmann

"Walter Orthmann, a 100-year-old, set the Guinness World Record for working at the same company for 84 years and nine days."

6. TIL - Margaret Knight (1838-1914)

"TIL Margaret Knight (1838-1914) invented the machine to mass produce flat-bottomed paper bags and, after winning a lawsuit against a fraudster who copied her design, the patent was issued in 1871. Her first invention was when she was 12 years old (and began working in a factory).

She had 87 patents."

7. "TIL: Tracy Chapman sued Nicki Minaj for copyright infringement."

"According to the complaint, Chapman repeatedly refused to give Minaj permission to sample one of her songs, but Minaj did it anyway. Minaj settled and agreed to pay Chapman $450K."

8. "TIL During pregnancy, if the mother suffers organ damage, the baby in the womb sends stem cells to repair the damaged organ."

9. TIL about the Spanish Inquisition

"The Spanish Inquisition would write to you, giving 30 days' notice before arriving and these were read out during Sunday Mass. Although these edicts were eventually phased out, you originally always expected the Spanish Inquisition."

10. TIL about “Firehawks”

"TIL that “Firehawks” a collection of three Australian bird species, are the only animals besides humans known to use fire to hunt. They will pick up burning sticks from fires and carry them in their beaks and talons before dropping them in unburnt vegetation setting the ground ablaze driving prey out."

11. TIL of Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari

"TIL of Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari, a Saudi who was the heaviest man alive at 1,340 lb. When Saudi King Abdullah heard of this, Khalid was ordered to a medical center in Riyadh.

In about four years, Khalid would weigh 150 lb."

12. TIL about Great Ormond Street children's hospital

"TIL a special law in the UK was created to ensure that the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital will forever be able to collect royalties from stage performances, audiobooks, book releases, etc. of Peter Pan in the UK. This is the only work with an 'exception' to copyright laws."

13. "TIL that Slash, guitarist of Guns N' Roses, helped fund the dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History."

14. "TIL in 1996, a 21-year-old man burst into a New Zealand radio station, took the manager hostage and demanded that Kermit the Frog's rendition of Rainbow Connection be played."

15. TIL - hippos can sleep underwater

"TIL hippos have a reflex mechanism that allows them to pop up, take a breath, and go back down without waking up so they can sleep underwater."

16. TIL about the "Old Man of the Lake"

"TIL about the “Old Man of the Lake,” a 30-foot tall, 450-year-old tree stump, most likely a hemlock, that has been bobbing vertically in Oregon's Crater Lake since at least 1896. Moving freely, it can be virtually anywhere on the lake, so boat captains commonly communicate its position for safety."

17. "TIL Anne Frank wrote four dirty jokes in her diary, which she later papered over so they weren’t discovered by researchers until 2018."

18. "TIL that Channel 5 was the only major UK television channel not to broadcast Queen Elizabeth II's funeral - they aired The Emoji Movie instead."

19. "TIL The first person clinically diagnosed with Autism is still alive. Donald Grey Triplett who is 89 years old."

20. "TIL that same-sex behavior has been recorded in more than 1000 species in animal kingdom ranging from beetles to penguins."

"This was earlier often seen as an example of Darwin's paradox as these behaviors are non-reproductive and don't contribute to the advancement of species in the traditional sense."

21. "TIL - The miscarriage rate is higher than people perceive."

"On average 12.5% of women who know they are pregnant have a miscarriage within the first 23 weeks of pregnancy."

22. "TIL that Hawaii was a sovereign self-governing kingdom all the way up until 1893"

"TIL that Hawaii was a sovereign self-governing kingdom all the way up until 1893, totally unassociated with the U.S., until a coup d'état that year by 13 businessmen and 162 U.S. troops, with the openly stated goal of annexing the islands. (They succeeded.)"

23. "TIL: The 62 books in the mainline Goosebumps series were published in only 53 months."

"RL Stine published more than a book a month for almost five years."

24. "TIL that a woman named Jo Cameron has a rare genetic mutation that makes her unable to feel pain or anxiety."

"Despite numerous injuries throughout her life, Jo has never needed painkillers."

25. TIL about Walt Disney

"TIL As a child, Walt Disney's mom convinced his dad, Elias, to buy him a set of colored pencils and some drawing paper. Elias did not approve, believing the boy should spend time engaged in hard, manual labor.

Even after Walt became famous, Elias never considered animation a real job."

26. "TIL that the Philippines is 1 of 2 countries in the world that still doesn't allow divorce."

"It also has the 10th highest number of child brides globally, with 100,000 women married before their 15th birthday."

27. "James Blunt gave Weird Al Yankovic permission to parody his single "You're Beautiful".

28. "TIL Simeon Stylites lived on top of columns for 37 years."

"Simeon did this as a form of asceticism because when he lived in a cave people kept making pilgrimages to him and asking him religious questions. Ultimately his column life drew in even bigger crowds who would climb ladders to talk to him."

29. "TIL the eunuchs of the last Chinese emperor wore their severed testicles and penises in jars around their necks when working."

30. "TIL in 2019 a Brazilian drug trafficker serving a 73 yr sentence tried to escape from prison by disguising himself as his teenage daughter who was visiting."

"His plan was to leave her behind in his place but his nervousness as he approached the exit tipped off the guards. He hung himself 3 days later."

31. TIL about Tangier Island

"A community of ~500 off the coast of Virginia that live on a sinking island and speak a unique form of Old English"

It's always the right time to learn something new. If you believe you have no time to read in this modern time where everyone rushes everywhere, we can give you some propositions on how to fit reading into your daily schedule.

Perhaps you can do it while you wait for a bus or a taxi, during travel, while waiting in line at the market, etc.

Filip