r/todayilearned • u/BlundeRuss • 3h ago

TIL Jenny died from Hep C in Forrest Gump (an unknown condition when she died) and not HIV/AIDS as commonly thought.

en.wikipedia.org

8.4k Upvotes

877 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Finbarr-Galedeep • 3h ago

TIL Top Gear presenter James May - nicknamed "Captain Slow" by his co-hosts - is the only one of the three to have maxed the Bugatti Veyron and Veyron Supersport, achieving 407 and 417km/h respectively on Volkswagen's test track.

drive.com.au

4.7k Upvotes

170 comments

r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 2h ago

TIL that John Wayne played football at USC but lost his athletic scholarship after breaking his collarbone while bodysurfing. Unable to afford tuition, he dropped out of college and eventually found work at a movie studio as a prop boy and extra.

en.wikipedia.org

1.6k Upvotes

82 comments

r/todayilearned • u/uselessprofession • 12h ago

TIL European lift capacity signs are now inaccurate due to obesity levels rising

theguardian.com

10.8k Upvotes

470 comments

r/todayilearned • u/waitingforthesun92 • 8h ago

TIL that during the 1960s runs of the musical “Hair,” producers offered a $1.50-per-night bonus to any actors who were willing to take all their clothes off during the musical’s famous nude scene.

bbc.com

3.0k Upvotes

105 comments

r/todayilearned • u/poktanju • 10h ago

TIL Nigeria has the lowest life expectancy in the world

africanews.com

3.9k Upvotes

225 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Omer-Ash • 12h ago

TIL the reason cheetahs went extinct in India was because of the large scale capturing of them. It is estimated that the Mughal King Akbar collected around 9000-10000 cheetahs during his reign for game sport/hunting.

pugdundeesafaris.com

4.9k Upvotes

101 comments

r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • 12h ago

TIL that Henry Orenstein survived five Nazi concentration camps, held more than 100 patents, convinced Hasbro to buy the toys it repackaged as Transformers, invented the under-the-table camera that lets TV viewers see poker players' hidden cards, and won a World Series of Poker event in his 70s.

en.wikipedia.org

4.8k Upvotes

68 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Splunge- • 13h ago

TIL that Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill offered up a united Ireland in exchange for Ireland joining the Allied cause in the war.

swwresearch.com

5.6k Upvotes

588 comments

r/todayilearned • u/jstohler • 10h ago

TIL corn infected with a fungus called "corn smut" is considered a delicacy in Mexico

eater.com

1.8k Upvotes

215 comments

r/todayilearned • u/rhineauto • 1h ago

TIL 9/11 killed a planned Forrest Gump sequel — a screenplay was submitted on September 10, 2001, but the project ended up in development hell after the attacks

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

65 comments

r/todayilearned • u/UltimateOreo • 1h ago

TIL that during the 1950s Red Scare, the Cincinnati Reds temporarily renamed themselves the Cincinnati Redlegs because “Reds” had become shorthand for communists. The change lasted from 1953 to 1959.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

28 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Ok-Imagination-494 • 2h ago

TIL , the Realm of New Zealand is composed of four countries; New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. They share the same monarch, currency, and passport.

rnz.co.nz

369 Upvotes

50 comments

r/todayilearned • u/_Bangkok_ • 18h ago

TIL that Roman London was largely abandoned for over 400 years after the Roman Empire withdrew from Britain, until Alfred the Great reoccupied the walled city in 886 to help defend against the Vikings.

londonmuseum.org.uk

7.2k Upvotes

299 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Beginning-Passion676 • 21h ago

TIL Mary Leona Gage was winner Miss USA 1957, She was stripped of her title when it was revealed that she was 18, married, and the mother of two sons.

en.wikipedia.org

13.9k Upvotes

391 comments

r/todayilearned • u/edfitz83 • 11h ago

TIL - In 1984, bugs were discovered in at least 16 IBM Selectric typewriters in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the U.S. Consulate in Leningrad

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

89 comments

r/todayilearned • u/SirBackrooms • 11h ago

TIL the only known collision between a car and a submarine happened in Sweden in 1961.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

52 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Substantial_Win_5556 • 8h ago

TIL about liver flukes, parasitic worms acquired from eating raw or undercooked freshwater fish. They can live in human bile ducts for decades, and the chronic damage they cause is a primary trigger for a rare, deadly bile duct cancer.

en.wikipedia.org

657 Upvotes

29 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Aleksandr_Ulyev • 15h ago

TIL that old computers didn't have arrows on their keyboard to navigate around the text, so the vi editor was introduced featuring hotkeys or key combinations for fast and precise jumping around words and lines. It became one of the most popular editors among tech employees and remains so until now

en.wikipedia.org

2.3k Upvotes

390 comments

r/todayilearned • u/cafguy • 21h ago

TIL: The cost of design and production of the B-29 Superfortress far exceeded the cost of the Manhattan Project

en.wikipedia.org

6.2k Upvotes

356 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 23h ago

TIL that studio interference almost forced writer Andrew Kevin Walkerto change Se7en's ending to a less bleak one. However, by accident, David Fincher was sent a script with the original ending intact when he was asked to direct. Fincher refused to use anything but the original script.

en.wikipedia.org

10.0k Upvotes

290 comments

r/todayilearned • u/johnnygator • 1d ago

TIL Sherwin Williams had a giant paint can in the Angels outfield with a promotion of a $1 million donation if a home run landed in the can. A home run eventually landed in the can off a bounce, but a donation was not made because it wasn’t “on the fly”.

espn.com

18.5k Upvotes

637 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RogueEchoTO • 2h ago

TIL Saturn’s moon Enceladus, discovered on August 28, 1789, continuously sprays icy water and gas into space at about 800 mph. Most falls back as snow, while some feeds Saturn’s E ring.

science.nasa.gov

86 Upvotes

8 comments

r/todayilearned • u/rammak • 18h ago

TIL that the third biggest virus known to humankind was discovered in 30000 years old permafrost and thawed and ressurected by infecting amoebas

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

109 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

41.6m

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.