20 Of The Most Amazing Facts Shared On "Today I Learned" Online Community

Almost half of January has passed and I hope you are keeping up with your new year resolutions. And if you already broke them or never started one in the first place, here is a simple one that you can start today– join the ‘Today I Learned’ community on Reddit and learn something new every day for the rest of the year. After all, it's never too late to start learning new things.

#1

Image source: bimmer012 "TIL Keanu Reeves was offered the lead role in The Matrix after 5 leading actors in 1990s turned it down."

#2

Image source: ap0110 "TIL about Mary Ellen Pleasant, a black woman in the 1800s who amassed a fortune by eavesdropping on investors while working as a domestic."

#3

Image source: Cowzilla94 "TIL that owls cannot move their eyes. This is because their eyes are not balls, but cylinders that are held in place by bones called sclerotic rings. This is also the reason that owls have evolved to be able to rotate their head 270 degrees left and right, and 90 degrees up and down."

#4

Image source: Salsal_Azar "TIL outraged Egyptians had once lynched a Roman for killing a cat."

#5

Image source: Wrexis "TIL a bridge in Ireland that was designed to swing open for ships couldn't be opened for four years because someone lost the remote control."

#6

Image source: DesignersUniverse "TIL dolphins sleep with one eye open. Because they have to periodically go up for air and also be aware of predators, they are able to rest only half of their brain at a time and stay always somewhat conscious."

#7

Image source: BambiKittens666 "TIL About the "murder bottle". Many Victorian mothers would use a self feeding bottle to give their babies milk instead of breastfeeding. These bottles were made of earthenware & glass & were incredibly hard to clean which caused severe bacteria build up & caused the deaths of thousands of babies."

#8

Image source: USPO-222 "TIL that according to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level."

#9

Image source: --TheForce-- "TIL that Betty White holds the Guinness World Record for longest TV career by an entertainer, with credits spanning 80 years (1939 to 2019)."

#10

Image source: WhenTardigradesFly "TIL In 1993 a French man driving a Citroen car in a remote area of the Moroccan desert had a breakdown and became stranded. To survive he tore down the car, built a motorcycle from the parts, and rode it back to civilization. When he arrived he was ticketed for operating an illegal vehicle."

#11

Image source: wjbc "TIL Leonardo Da Vinci saved 13,000+ pages of notes and drawings on anatomy, physiology, engineering, mechanics, geometry, mathematics, bird flight, flying machines, botany, proportions, topology, weaponry, musical instruments, art, and more, all in mirrored shorthand written from right to left."

#12

Image source: RipplingSyrup "TIL the Great cheese riot of 1766 was a reaction to inflated cheese prices. The mayor tried to restore order but was knocked down by a cheese. The military were called & shots were fired, killing one man. He'd been guarding his cheeses."

#13

Image source: soratoumiga "TIL Queen Elizabeth II has reigned longer than her father, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather combined."

#14

Image source: LimeSugar "TIL: Carrie, Stephen King's first novel that launched his career, was rescued from the trash can after his wife Tabatha removed the crumpled up pages, read them and told her husband she wanted to know the rest of the story."

#15

Image source: fatboyslick "TIL the British Hedgehog Preservation Society won a campaign in 2006 to force McDonalds to redesign their McFlurry cups due to hedgehogs repeatedly getting stuck in them and dying."

#16

Image source: ALFateyourcat "TIL that in 1945, General George S Patton, upon the liberation of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany, forced 1,000 local citizens to tour the camp to witness firsthand the atrocities that had taken place within."

#17

Image source: jimi15 "TIL The mongols had a superstition that said that spilling royal blood would lead to great disaster. So instead they had other creative ways of executing such people. Including sewing up your orifices, drown you in molten metal or have horses trample you."

#18

Image source: ___And_Memes_For_All "TIL of Adolf Hitler’s Madagascar Plan. The plan was to relocate all the Jews to Madagascar. This idea later was shelved in favor for the mass genocide of the population."

#19

Image source: NorthNorthSalt "TIL that in Churchill, Canada, locals keep their car doors unlocked in order to provide other residents a quick escape, should they encounter a polar bear."

#20

Image source: 67demigod "TIL in the mid 1890s, Mary Whiton Caulkins completed all requirements towards a PhD in Psychology, but Harvard University refused to award her that degree because she was a woman."