r/todayilearned • u/Neebez • 8h ago

TIL a finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into transferring $25 million to scammers after joining a video conference call where every single other participant—including the company's CFO and several of his recognized coworkers—was an AI-generated deepfake.

cnn.com

17.9k Upvotes

542 comments

r/todayilearned • u/TheVentiLebowski • 4h ago

Flavoring, not flavor TIL Ambergris Was an Ice Cream Flavor in the 17th Century

tastingtable.com

2.2k Upvotes

150 comments

r/todayilearned • u/beasterne7 • 4h ago

TIL in crowd wisdom, the 'surprisingly popular' answer can overcome ignorance of the masses

princeton.edu

2.1k Upvotes

97 comments

r/todayilearned • u/QueenOfNZ • 10h ago

TIL that in 2022, a 7-year-old boy, his brother, and their cousin discovered a rare juvenile T. rex fossil in North Dakota. Dubbed "Teen Rex," it is one of only four juvenile T. rex fossils ever found.

cbsnews.com

4.8k Upvotes

33 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Sebastianlim • 20h ago

TIL that in 2020, Justin Montney lost his fiancée, Alexis-Athena Wyatt, in a car crash. When he attempted to get a refund from the photography company he had hired for their wedding, they not only refused but released a statement mocking him.

people.com

24.8k Upvotes

925 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Double-decker_trams • 8h ago

TIL in Medieval England, a form of football (also called mob football) was played between neighbouring villages/towns. Team sizes were unlimited. The teams had to move an item (for example an animal's bladder) to a particular geographical point, such as their opponents' church.

en.wikipedia.org

1.3k Upvotes

79 comments

r/todayilearned • u/OccludedFug • 2h ago

TIL that the pink plastic flamingo is the official bird of Madison Wisconsin.

en.wikipedia.org

391 Upvotes

17 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 5h ago

TIL in 1948, when Satchel Paige was finally signed to pitch in the Major Leagues, The Sporting News named him Rookie of the Year—at (at least) 42 years old.

mlb.com

584 Upvotes

11 comments

r/todayilearned • u/RainyWanderlust • 21h ago

TIL about the “blob” slime mould. It has almost 720 sexes, can heal itself, and has no brain, but is able to transmit knowledge if merged with another blob.

abc.net.au

13.8k Upvotes

703 comments

r/todayilearned • u/thebigchil73 • 20h ago

TIL that the ‘high’ from gambling isn’t connected to winning - the dopamine rush peaks at exactly 50:50 probability. Gamblers get a rush when the roulette wheel is spinning but their pleasure is largely unaffected whether they win or lose.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

8.1k Upvotes

395 comments

r/todayilearned • u/gelatomancer • 10h ago

TIL Sea Otter Skeletons Can Turn Purple If They Eat Enough Purple Sea Urchins

popsci.com

1.0k Upvotes

26 comments

r/todayilearned • u/A_W_Z_2 • 1h ago

TIL failed Operation Kiebitz, during WW2 Nazis planned to rescue 4 skilled U-Boat commanders held in Canada POWs camp with a U-Boat, canadians became aware of the plan and laid trap to capture the U-Boat.

en.wikipedia.org

• Upvotes

10 comments

r/todayilearned • u/kevlarbuns • 1d ago

TIL member of the Donner Party, Lewis Keseberg, was accused of killing and consuming multiple, including children, by the rescue party. He was found with the corpse of Tamsen Donner, and had hidden her remaining money. He later sued for defamation, insisting he only ate those who died of exposure.

en.wikipedia.org

8.1k Upvotes

489 comments

r/todayilearned • u/PeasantLich • 1d ago

TIL that Checkers has been a solved game for almost 20 years. Optimal play is unbeatable, and two opponents playing optimally always reach a stalemate.

researchgate.net

31.5k Upvotes

1.4k comments

r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 18h ago

TIL that before the Black Death in Europe, there was the Plague of Justinian. The plague weakened the Byzantine Empire's economy and caused the empire's decline.

en.wikipedia.org

1.4k Upvotes

86 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Skaterose6 • 23h ago

TIL Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a well-known game-day superstition where he wears the same pair of red underwear for every game of his NFL career.

espn.com

2.4k Upvotes

271 comments

r/todayilearned • u/LakeM0bius_hunter • 9h ago

TIL that the Moon moves about 3.8 centimetres farther away from Earth every year.

science.nasa.gov

138 Upvotes

54 comments

r/todayilearned • u/an_aficionado • 1d ago

TIL that ancient Greek and Latin texts were often written without spaces between words. This style of writing, known as scriptio continua, meant that a sentence could look likeone long stringofletters, and readers had to figure out where each word began and ended.

en.wikipedia.org

3.4k Upvotes

335 comments

r/todayilearned • u/leafpool2014 • 1d ago

TIL that in WW2, Poland declared war on Japan. Japan rejected there declaration of war. Quote: “We do not accept Poland’s challenge. The Poles, fighting for their freedom, only declared war on us under pressure from the United Kingdom.”A curious case: Poland only declared war on one country in WWII;

outono.net

6.3k Upvotes

277 comments

r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 1d ago

TIL After the "Fight Of The Century" Muhammad Ali refused to admit defeat and sought to define the outcome in the publics mind as a "White Man's Decision". Ali later on defeated Frazier in their third and final bout at the Thrilla in Manilia in 1975

en.wikipedia.org

5.0k Upvotes

351 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Keobooks • 1d ago

TIL: Roosevelt is on the dime because he founded the March of Dimes foundation for polio research

en.wikipedia.org

10.6k Upvotes

185 comments

r/todayilearned • u/Obversa • 1d ago

TIL that King George III originally planned to abdicate the throne in favor of his eldest son - the future King George IV - and exile himself to Hanover in March 1783 after Great Britain lost the American colonies in the Revolutionary War. However, he remained on the throne until his death in 1820.

thecrownchronicles.co.uk

2.9k Upvotes

120 comments

r/todayilearned • u/AetheriaNox • 1d ago

TIL the oldest surviving liquid wine in the world was discovered in a first-century Roman glass urn containing intact wine. The urn was discovered in 2019 in Spain.

en.wikipedia.org

1.9k Upvotes

72 comments

r/todayilearned • u/MajesticBread9147 • 1d ago

TIL Director Doris Wishman's film Nude on the Moon was banned in New York after the New York State Censorship Board determined that movies about nudist colonies on earth were permissible, but nudist colonies on the moon were not.

en.wikipedia.org

1.5k Upvotes

31 comments

r/todayilearned • u/DrakeSavory • 20h ago

TIL that the Battle of Big Dry Wash was the last major battle of the Apache War and 4 soldiers earned the Medal of Honor as a result of their actions during the battle.

en.wikipedia.org

248 Upvotes

30 comments

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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.

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