TIL that the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old Greek device recovered from a shipwreck, was so mechanically sophisticated that nothing comparable appeared again in human history for roughly 1,400 years. It predicted eclipses and tracked the movements of the planets using a system of over 30 in [Source]

TIL there will be three Friday the 13th in 2026 (February, March and November). This is the most you can have in a year and the rarest combination last occurring in 2015. [Source]

TIL that bees can recognize human faces using the same "configural processing" technique humans use — assembling parts into a whole. They were taught this in lab experiments despite having brains smaller than a sesame seed. [Source]

TIL a Japanese company gave non-smokers 6 extra vacation days per year to compensate for time smokers spent during smoke breaks [Source]

TIL about Turnspit dog, an extinct breed (now) which was used in the kitchen to help chefs and cooks. [Source]

TIL Black Sabbath bassist Greezer Butler has been a vegetarian since he was a child. His childhood dog ‘Scamp’ had acid thrown on him and Geezer has been dedicated to helping animals ever since. [Source]

TIL Sting got his name from wearing a yellow and black jumper while playing jazz with the Phoenix Jazzmen in the evenings after his teaching job in the early 70s. [Source]

TIL that humans tend to remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones, a phenomenon known as the Zeigarnik effect. [Source]

TIL the Han dynasty carried out a major southward expansion into the lands of the Baiyue, conquering states like Minyue, Nanyue, and Dian, where military campaigns led to the subjugation, displacement, and gradual assimilation of many indigenous peoples. [Source]

TIL Only 15 countries operate aircraft carriers (and 7 of those are for helicopters only). [Source]

TIL scientists discovered that the bacteria living on the International Space Station have mutated into a species that doesn't exist on Earth. [Source]

TIL the world’s longest regularly scheduled nonstop commercial flight is between Singapore and New York, lasting about 18–19 hours and covering over 15,000 km [Source]

TIL that cats can and do apologize to their owners. Headbutting and bringing toys are one of the ways they're apologizing. [Source]

TIL that Singapore has an official Ethnic Integration Policy that mandates a balanced ethnic representation in public housing blocks and neighbourhoods across the nation-state to prevent the formation of ethnic enclaves. [Source]

TIL The salary of John Hawkwood, the infamous mercenary captain who spend most of his career employeed in Italy, ranged between 6k and 80k florins a year(just from his military contracts). A skilled craftsman in the same period was earning about 30 florins per year [Source]

TIL a 2022 study revealed that 35% of the adults in Japan intend to "never travel" again. No other country "came close to the travel reluctance shown in Japan"; the next highest was South Korea at 15%. [Source]

TIL after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the remaining three reactors continued operations, with the last reactor having been shut down in 2000. [Source]

TIL direct voluntary control of pupil dilation and constriction was deemed to be impossible, however, in 2021 a 23-year-old man in Germany demonstrated his ability to drastically change his pupil size on command to doctors. [Source]

TIL that "Baghdad Bob" is believed to still be alive and living quietly in UAE at 94 or 95 years old. [Source]

TIL that the shortest time a person was a British peer was 1 hour. [Source]

TIL Under King Kamehameha I, the Kingdom of Hawaii had the largest navy in the entirety of the Pacific [Source]