25 Fascinating New “TIL” Facts People Discovered This August

If you have a mind that is thirsty for more knowledge and you’re struggling to find fresh matter to feed it, we have you covered. Following in the vein of the popular online trend “Today I Learned”, one Reddit community aims to share intriguing facts that aren’t common knowledge. People who discovered these enlightening trivia were so excited by their captivating finds that they hastened to the community platform in the hopes of sharing the new material they discovered with like-minded folks. We’ve rounded up some of the freshest finds in the list below that will teach you something new, because the journey of learning never seems to end.

#1

Image source: Madmystic94, Mutual of New York (MONY)

TIL Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry was asked to write a series called Riverboat, set in 1860s Mississippi. When he discovered that the producers wanted no black people on the show, he argued so much with them that he lost the job.

BanjoTCat:

Quite the science fiction premise: it’s 1860s Mississippi but no black people.

AlienInOrigin:

He was a bit of a stubborn [jerk] at times, but he detested racism. Insisting on a black woman in a senior position on Star Trek TOS was game changing and changed TV.

#2

Image source: ThomasNiuNiu

TIL about Dale Schroeder, a man from Iowa who used his life savings to help send 33 kids to college. He never married, had no kids, grew up poor and worked at the same company for 67 years.

#3

Image source:  Ill_Definition8074, Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton

TIL In 1338, Scottish countess Agnes of Dunbar led the successful defense of Dunbar Castle during a 5-month siege by a much larger English army. At one point, they threatened to k**l her captured brother if she didn’t surrender. She replied that his death would only benefit her as she was his heir.

#4

Image source:  EssexGuyUpNorth, George Dagerotip / Unsplash

TIL that English speakers will feel uncomfortable if a pause in conversation lasts for more than 4 seconds. Japanese speakers are comfortable with a pause of up to 8 seconds.

AntakeeMunOlla:

They tried to calculate the time for Finnish people. They’re still waiting.

#5

Image source:  rampantradius

TIL that Abu Zayd al-Balkhi (850–934 CE), a Persian scholar, rejected the idea that mental illness was caused by demons or supernatural forces. He recognized conditions like depression and anxiety and argued they had natural psychological and physical causes, centuries ahead of modern psychiatry.

#6

Image source: ClownfishSoup, Awais Jamil / Unsplash

TIL that in 2023, a kidnapper tried to abduct an 8 year old girl, but her 13 year old brother saved her by shooting the kidnapper with his slingshot until he ran off. A 17 year old was later arrested with wounds to his head and chest.

Niobium_Sage:

Dude, slingshots are legit. One with good bullets (marbles or such) can be a more effective deterrent than a BB gun if we’re talking children’s weapons. I’d much rather be shot with a BB gun than a slingshot at least.

#7

Image source: TJ_Fox, Getty Images / Unsplash

TIL that the world’s oldest and most prestigious nanny school, Norland College in England, trains nannies in self defense and evasive driving as well as more traditional childcare skills. Jokingly described as “Mary Poppins meets James Bond”, some graduates go on to earn six figures.

#8

Image source: PowershellAddict

TIL Anthony Borges, the Parkland shooting hero who shielded his classmates with his body, legally owns the rights to the shooter’s name preventing the shooter from granting interviews or make any agreements with film producers or authors without Borges’ permission.

#9

Image source:  Oturanthesarklord, Fakhrir Amrullah / Unsplash

TIL that in 1996, Mcdonald’s tried to sue the owner of a family owned restaurant located in Fairbury, Illinois that had opened in 1956 called “McDonald’s Family Restaurant” and lost, ironically the owner of “McDonald’s Family Restaurant” is named Ronald McDonald.

ottenball:

McDonald’s Family Restaurant was given rights to the name in Fairbury and they were allowed to approve or deny any McDonald’s franchise locations in the town.

#10

Image source: Objective_Horror1113, kentarotakizawa / flickr

TIL Freddie Mercury was born with four extra teeth, causing a prominent overbite. Despite being self-conscious about them, he never got them fixed, believing the extra space in his mouth contributed to his vocal ability. He feared altering his teeth might change his voice.

#11

Image source:  LookAtThatBacon

TIL the TV show Scrubs was filmed in the North Hollywood Medical Center, using the entire decommissioned hospital. All of the writers also worked inside it, and it had an editing suite and a sound-studio for post-production. And instead of trailers for the cast, they were given old hospital rooms.

LookAtThatBacon (OP):

And according to the wiki page for the hospital building itself, sometimes people would mistake it for an active hospital.

#12

Image source: Stotallytob3r

TIL in 1816, the United States built a fort to protect itself from invasion by Canada. There was only one small problem: due to a surveying error, it was built in Canada. It was later known as “Fort Blunder”

#13

Image source: MrMojoFomo, Gage Skidmore

TIL that in 1984, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith heard a song on the radio. Tyler liked it and told Perry that they should do a cover version. Perry turned to Tyler and said “That’s us, f*ckhead.” Tyler’s didn’t remember writing or performing their ’75 song “You See Me Crying”

#14

Image source:  Overall-Register9758, Getty Images / Unsplash

TIL that in Japan, it is common practice among married couples for the woman to fully control the couple’s finances. The husbands’ hand over their monthly pay and receive an allowance from their wives.

Cyneganders:

Used to be like this in Norway too. My grandparents (both sides, actually) had plaques in the kitchen with ‘the chores of the man/woman’, and one of those of the man was to hand over the money.

#15

Image source: OccludedFug, Daniel Fazio / Unsplash

TIL a donkey named Diesel got spooked on a hike and ran off. Five years later Diesel the donkey was spotted among a herd of elk, having assumed an alpha role.

“On April 20, 2019, Diesel accompanied Dave Drewry and a black llama on a weekend trail packing excursion in the Cache Creek Wilderness near the Judge Davis Trail by Wilson Flat. During their hike, something spooked Diesel and he bolted, dragging Drewry through the brush. Diesel’s blue saddlebags were still attached when he ran off. Terrie speculated that a mountain lion spooked him.

… a local warden suspected that the donkey was responsible for k**ling a mountain lion that showed evidence of being k**led by a hoofed animal.”

#16

Image source: iamveryDerp, John Johnson

TIL Douglas Adams conceived the hitchhikes guide while “lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck… Inebriated beneath the swirling stars, clutching a copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe, Adams decided that someone should devise a similar guidebook to the whole of the Milky Way.”

Apprehensive-Fun4181:

He amended this later in life, saying he thinks he embellished for the sake of interviews and such, though really like what /iamverydeep wrote below.  People wanted a cool story and he was famous enough to be put into that position.
Humans like a good story. We embellish them for our audience.  Psychology now knows that when we “remember”, we actually reassemble, changing things, often “putting the Present in the Past”.
We are predictable, but not consistent.

#17

Image source: South_Gas626, Long Ma / Unsplash

TIL of “The Final Experiment” – a 2024 Antarctica expedition where flat Earth YouTubers saw the 24 hour sun, which could not be explained by non-spherical models. This prompted at least one YouTuber to publicly admit they were wrong, and leave the flat Earth community.

553l8008:

The plane ride at 30,000ft and curvature of the earth wasn’t enough.

SubMeHarderThx:

Massive props to Jeranism for seeing the truth and swapping sides, it completely unrooted his entire world view.
I will make note that all the other major mainstream flat earthers, Nathan Oakley, Flatzoid’s Perspective, Eric Dubay, David Weiss flat out refused the free trip to Antarctica that Will Duffy was offering. Anyone who sees this and think that those people actually care about the truth, I implore you to rethink that.
We all know David Weiss is a massive grifter who doesn’t believe, but the others are cowards who refused the perfect opportunity to challenge their beliefs and find out the actual truth. This tells you that they don’t care about the truth. They don’t want to be wrong and they don’t even fully believe what lies they spew because if they believed it, it would have been the perfect opportunity to prove that they were right to the rest of the word.

#18

Image source:  superanth

TIL that when scientists put a hamster wheel out in the woods, different types of animals seemed to enjoy running on it, including mice, rats, snails, and frogs.

Splunge-:

I’d like to see the snail doing it.
ETA: OK, well, here’s a slug tearing it up.

#19

Image source: tyrion2024

TIL in 1981 Tom Petty voiced his objections when he found out that MCA was going to list his album ‘Hard Promises’ at $9.98 instead of the usual list price of $8.98. After Petty threatened to name the album ‘Eight Ninety Eight’ or to even withhold it entirely, MCA decided against raising the price.

bayesian13:

A dollar in 1981 would be worth $3.54 dollars today. So the usual list price of $8.98 in 1981 would be worth $31.79 today. and the $9.98 price would be $35.33 today.

#20

Image source: alrightfornow, Maxim Tolchinskiy

TIL the Netherlands Forensic Institute can detect deepfake videos by analyzing subtle changes in the facial color caused by a person’s heartbeat, which is something AI can’t convincingly fake (yet).

Pr1mrose:

I don’t think the concern should be that deep analysis won’t be able to recognize AI. It’s more that it’ll be indistinguishable to the casual viewer. By the time a dangerous deepfake has propagated around millions on social media, many of them will never see the “fact check”, or believe it even when they do.

#21

Image source:  rampantradius, Wild Spirit / Unsplash

TIL the Falkland Islands used to have a native wolf called the warrah that was so friendly and unafraid of humans it would literally swim out to greet boats. Settlers wiped it out in the 1800s because it was too friendly to run away. It was the first canid to go extinct in recorded history.

rampantradius:

In The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), Charles Darwin documented the warrah’s remarkable tameness, noting how these wolves showed little fear of humans, often approaching closely and even swimming out to boats. He described their curiosity as a key trait, which made them vulnerable to hunting.
They wiped them out just because they assumed it was a threat to livestock like sheep, when in reality it mostly fed on small animals and scavenged from the sea. The sheep was a new animal in it’s ecosystem, so the warrah were probably just curious as Darwin comments on their curious nature. But European settlers had zero tolerance for any predators, even the potential ones.
Also for their fur and they were also killed for museum specimens, cus they were the only native land mammal on the island.

#22

Image source: zahrul3, Getty Images / Unsplash

TIL: Someone at the National Health Service in England sent a test email to 840000 colleagues and another replied all, resulting in one of the largest reply all storms. 168 million emails were sent between people and caused the health system to be down for half a day.

#23

Image source: consulent-finanziar, Kasper Gant / Unsplash

TIL that 75% of all aluminium ever produced is still in use today.

Jhawk163:

That’s because when it comes to aluminium, it’s WAY easier to recycle it than it is to mine it and refine it from new. It’s so much more difficult that in history it was actually considered more valuable than gold.

#24

Image source: Alvinyuu, Виктор Пинчук

TIL Nike made an ad where a Samburu tribesman said Nike’s slogan “Just Do it” in his native language. An anthropologist called Nike out. The phrase actually meant, “I don’t want these. Give me big shoes.” Nike admitted their mistake and stated “we thought nobody in America would know what he said.”

#25

Image source: FullOfSound, Glenn Francis

TIL about Jesse Heiman, a prolific background extra in tv and film. He has 108 credits including Spider-Man, The Social Network, Transformers, Monk, How I Met Your Mother and many more. It’s believed he is the most recognizable extra in film history.