25 Random facts to level up your trivia knowledge

There is a page on Reddit called “today I learned,” or “TIL” for short. On this page, people post interesting little-known facts that they just found out about. We’ve compiled some of the most interesting tidbits posted there so that we can all expand our minds.

How many of these facts do you know already, and how many are totally new to you? Keep reading to learn so much more about the world around us.

A Bigger River

“TIL that the Mississippi River was once five miles wide and whales swam up it from the Gulf of Mexico.

“The remains of these whales have been found in Michigan.” —InAFloodplain / Reddit

Free Beaches

“TIL that all beaches in Mexico are property of the federal government.

“There are no privately owned beaches in the whole country, all of them are open to public use.” —SplittingHares / Reddit

An Escaped Cow

“TIL that a cow escaped from a Polish farm and was spotted months later living with a herd of wild bison.” —TBTabby / Reddit

I guess that cow just really wanted to get in touch with nature.

The Story Behind Billie Jean

“TIL Michael Jackson was terrified of the real-life fan who inspired the song Billie Jean after she sent him a letter with a weapon and instructions to kill himself.

“He kept her photograph to memorize her face, in case she ever turned up someplace.” —Reddit

Standing Up For What’s Right

“TIL that even though Edward Bannister won 1st prize for painting at the 1876 Philadelphia centennial international exhibition, after discovering Bannister’s identity, the judge wanted to rescind his award because he was black.

“However, this wasn’t possible due to protests from the other competitors.” —LogicBomb69 / Reddit

Bees Are Hardier Than We Thought

“TIL that when the Notre-Dame Cathedral was on fire, the some 200,000 bees that live in the roof were thought to be dead…

“But in fact, they were still alive after the fire.” —ilikecheems1 / Reddit

The Ultimate Mole

“TIL about FBI agent Robert Hanssen. He was tasked to find a mole within the FBI after the FBI’s moles in the KGB were caught.

“Robert Hanssen was the mole and had been working with the KGB since 1979.” —phileo56 / Reddit

They Love Their Tea

“TIL that England experiences large spikes in power demand during half-time at football games due to widespread use of electric kettles.” —nitrokitty / Reddit

What’s half-time without a spot of tea?

A Tough Life

“TIL Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, endured many tragedies. Her mother died after giving birth to her, she was in constant debt, her first, second, and third children all died, while her husband drowned on his sailing boat.

“She herself passed away at 53.” —MarineKingPrime_ / Reddit

Where The Name UB40 Comes From

“TIL the band UB40 is named after Unemployment Benefit, Form 40—a form issued to people claiming unemployment benefits.

“The name was suggested by a friend of the band because all the members were unemployed.” —YourOwnBiggestFan / Reddit

A Scary Revelation

“TIL the Boeing 787 needs to be rebooted every 51 days to stop rounding errors causing it to crash.” —exc_osrs / Reddit

Does anyone else feel a bit more uneasy about air travel now?

A Very Expensive Toilet

“TIL of the $23 million toilets designed by NASA for deep-space missions. With odor control being a serious issue, NASA pays certified sniffers to smell the toilets after they’ve been used to evaluate odor-control measures.

“The lead engineer calls them the ‘unsung heroes of the space program.'” —WhileFalseRepeat / Reddit

The Invention Of Auto-Tune

“TIL Auto-Tune, introduced in 1997, which uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances, was named one of the 50 worst inventions by Time Magazine.” —CiberSibey

Time was pretty savage toward artists who rely heavily on the tech.

Shark Smell

“TIL that sharks smell in ‘stereo,’ that is, they can detect the tiny delays in the time it takes for a scent to reach one nostril compared to the other and use it to determine the direction the scent is coming from.

“This helps them in tracking their prey.” —Reddit

What The French Gave Us

“TIL that the French Revolution gave us the metric system and almost gave us metric clocks, too.

“They had 10 hours in the day, 10 days in the week, and an even 30 days each month.” —gedaliyah / Reddit

The Mystery Moose

“TIL that for 70 years a bunch of New Zealanders have continued to fervently believe that moose still live on the South Island of NZ despite no actual sightings since 1952.

The mystery has been compared to Bigfoot” — u/Ganesha811

The Prarie Dogs Are Definitely Gossiping About You

“TIL Prairie dog language is complex. They don’t just have a call for “danger”: their calls differentiate human, hawk, domesticated dog, coyote etc. and specify size & color.

One study found that they can communicate “Here comes the short human in the yellow” (vs the tall human in blue) to each other” — u/lord_of_the_bees

Dave Has To Set A Good Example

“TIL Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendy’s) was a high-school dropout.

He was afraid his success would convince teens to drop out of school, so at age 60, he went back and got his GED.” — u/howmuchbanana

How Do You Ban A Horse?

“TIL that Icelandic horses are not allowed to leave the country. If they do, they are banned from returning.

This is because Iceland is an island so they have limited diseases, and this is another measure to prevent it.” — Reddit

They Seem Like They’d Be Too Big To Float…

“TIL that elephants are tremendous distance swimmers. They can swim for up to six hours and 25 miles (48km).

They are so buoyant that if they tire in the water, they can just rest by floating and will not sink. They can also use their trunk as a snorkel and dive.” u/itsmelen

Danny The Multilingual

“TIL Danny DeVito did the dub for his role as the titular character in The Lorax (2012) in Russian, German, Italian, Catalan, and Castilian Spanish, despite not speaking any of those languages — u/shoeswontwork

It must have been difficult to get them all right.

An Accidental Kidnapping

“TIL that Walt Disney accidentally ‘kidnapped’ Richard Nixon by dispatching his monorail train before the Secret Service could get on.

The agents ran after the train and attempted to jump onboard but the doors had already closed. Monorail pilot Bob Gurr was terrified; Nixon got a kick out of it.” — u/WouldbeWanderer

A Bronzed Scultpure With An Unknown Origin

“TIL people keep finding meticulously crafted hollow dodecahedrons throughout Europe dating back to the Roman Empire but historians have no idea what they’re supposed to be used for as there’s no historical record of them anywhere.

Theories range from dice to knitting.” — Reddit

Your Teeth Only Feel One Thing

“TIL Teeth are only able to experience one sensation, that being pain.

When you eat or drink something too hot or too cold, or a dentist operates on your teeth, you will only experience pain because that is the only thing the nerves around your teeth respond to.” — u/Midnightghost_

So Water Is Wet

“TIL: Firefighters use wetting agents to make water wetter.

The chemicals reduce the surface tension of plain water so it’s easier to spread and soak into objects, which is why it’s known as ‘wet water.'” — u/SirHermiOdle