Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 19:49

TIL that the city of Yubari, Hokkaido in Japan has experienced a 95% population decline since the 1960s. Once a thriving coal mining town that saw 120,000 people, its current population is near 5,500. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 17:49

TIL it was severely taboo for US presidents to leave the country while in office, with Theodore Roosevelt's visit to Panama to inspect progress on the canal in 1906 being the first time a sitting president has left the country. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 16:49

TIL that there was a Sitka Spruce called "Kiidk'yaas" with a unique mutation that gave it gold needles. It was a holy tree to the Haida people, but it was illegally cut down in 1997 by a disgruntled forest engineer; ironically, this was supposedly an act of protest against the logging industry. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 15:49

TIL that in 2024 soccer actually overtook baseball to become the United States’ third favorite sport [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 13:49

TIL During the 1990 World Cup, Brazil played Argentina. During a break, Brazilian player Branco was handled a bottle of water by the Argentine physio. Branco felt sleepy and felt he had been spiked with a sedative. Argentina won. 14 years later, Maradonna suggested this was true. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 10:49

TIL The oldest known named pet in recorded history was the cat of an ancient Egyptian priest in the 15th century BCE. The cat's name was Nedjem, which means "Sweet one" or "Sweetie". [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 08:49

TIL there was a gladiator fight between a group of five retiarii and an equal number of secutores. The retiarii surrendered without a fight, but when their execution was ordered, one of them picked his weapon back up and slaughtered the secutores. Emperor Caligula was disgusted by the showing. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 06:49

TIL David Letterman created a college scholarship specifically for average "C students," believing that grades don't always reflect a person's talent or potential. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 05:49

TIL that Dominique Dunne, actress who played Dana in Poltergeist was strangled by her abusive ex-boyfriend after she ended their relationship. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, served only two and a half years, and has been free for decades. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 03:49

TIL that the American School system is *not* based on a 150 year old agrarian harvest cycle and is almost entirely based upon the fact that all of the Lower 48 get very hot from May-August. Additionally back when America *was* more agrarian, kids *did* go to school in the summer. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 01:49

TIL that during the War of 1812 British officer James Dacre was acquitted by court martial for the loss of his ship after defending himself by noting it had been French-built. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 23:49

TIL in 2025 three octogenarian nuns fled their nursing home and broke back into their former convent in Salzburg with former students and a locksmith. After they gained 100,000 Instagram followers, the diocese said they can stay under conditions including closing their social media accounts [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 22:49

TIL from 2004-2023, Japan has closed 8,850 schools. The nation is losing 400-500 schools a year. Japan's Ministry of Education tracks almost 75,000 excess classrooms not in use. Many of these schools are repurposed into other facilities but they are often located in declining rural areas. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 20:49

TIL that nuclear fission reactors appear to have happened naturally on Earth. Uranium-rich mineral deposit became inundated with groundwater, which could act as a moderator for the neutrons produced by nuclear fission. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 18:49

TIL In later Greek tradition, Odysseus was accidentally killed by Telegonus, the son he had with the sorceress Circe. Unaware Odysseus was his father, Telegonus attacked Ithaca, wounded him with a spear, and killed him. This story comes from the lost epic Telegony, not The Odyssey. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 18:49

TIL that in China you can pay money to go to a fake office and pretend to have a job [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 16:49

TIL Paul McCartney played drums on the first two tracks of The White Album ("Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence"), because Ringo had temporarily quit the band. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 15:49

TIL of the 'Conquest of the Desert' an Argentine war of conquest against the native tribes of the Patagonia. Argentine troops killed more than 1,000 Mapuches, displaced more than 15,000 more from their traditional lands and enslaved a portion of the remaining Indigenous people. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 13:49

TIL American actress Lina Basquette was offered a contract in Nazi Germany. According to her she was taken to meet Hitler where he made a pass at her and she responded by kicking him in the groin. When he persisted she told him her maternal grandfather was Jewish. She left Germany the next day. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 12:49

TIL electronics produced between 1999 and 2007 had a higher than expected failure rate due to non-solid aluminium electrolytic capacitors [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 08:49

TIL basketball, especially American basketball, is extremely popular in China. The NBA is the most popular sports league in the country, beating all domestic leagues. In 2020, there were 482 million fans in China, a viewership higher than the entire population of the United States. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 07:49

TIL that sex, on average, burns 69 calories. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 05:49

TIL Jackrabbits can literally panic to death in an evolutionary trait called "capture myopathy." This is because jackrabbits are such fast performing animals that they prioritize immediate survival over long term health. Capture myopathy can lead to poisoning, organ failure, and usually death. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 04:49

TIL the Attica Prison Riot in New York ended with the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States prison riots. Almost everyone, including 9 out of the 10 hostages, was killed by law enforcement gunfire when the state retook control of the prison [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 03:49

TIL a New Jersey construction worker tried to keep a $38.5M lottery-pool jackpot, told his boss he was leaving for foot surgery he never had, and filed for unemployment after claiming the prize. A jury rejected his story and awarded each of his five coworkers a $4M share. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

19 July 2026 00:49

TIL a school district appealed all the way to SCOTUS to try to ban “I (heart) Boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 23:49

TIL while waiting for a flat tire to be fixed before deaparture, Sue Hendrickson decided to explore an area their fossil expedition never checked. She then found a few fossils, and upon further excavation, a near complete T Rex fossil, that is now named "Sue" [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 21:49

TIL the Great Wall of China isn't actually visible from space with the naked eye. NASA has repeatedly confirmed astronauts can't spot it unaided, despite the myth. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 19:49

TIL it is no longer possible to establish a new landline phone as a private person in Sweden and the copper telephone network is being disassembled. [Source]

Today I Learned 🎓

18 July 2026 17:49

TIL the Telugu letter "Gna" (జ్ఞా) forced Apple into an emergency global update in 2018 because simply displaying it would fatally crash the iOS user interface. [Source]