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]
U.S. Naval Institute
The Army And Navy Of Kamehameha I
When Captain James Cook of
TIL that a 2019 study found the Sahara Desert periodically turns green every 20,000 years due to small shifts in Earth’s orbit affecting rainfall patterns [Source]
Explorersweb
The Sahara Turns Green Every 21,000 Years » Explorersweb
Every 21,000 years for the last 800,000 years, the Sahara has periodically turned green, and researchers now think they know why.
TIL the longest lightning bolt ever recorded stretched about 829 km (515 miles), making it one of the largest electrical events ever measured on Earth. [Source]
World Meteorological Organization
WMO certifies megaflash lightning record in USA
The megaflash occurred in October 2017, during a major thunderstorm complex. It extended from eastern Texas to near Kansas City - equivalent to the distance between Paris and Venice in Europe. It would take a car about eight to nine hours and a commercial…
TIL in the 80s, Nintendo of America had a strict rule that a third-party company could only publish up to five games a year for the NES in the US. Konami of America then got around this rule by forming a shell corporation called Ultra Games in 1988 to extend their annual library to ten games a year. [Source]
TIL in the 2000, an American-British consortium offered ABBA $1 Billion USD to do a 100-show tour, they declined. [Source]
RTE.ie
ABBA turn down $1 billion reunion tour
Forty years after they shot to global super stardom with their victory at the Eurovision Song Contest, ABBA have once again ruled out reforming despite being offered $1 billion to tour one more time.
TIL Felix Baumgartner, the man who jumped from the stratosphere during the Red Bull Stratos Project, died on the 17th of July, 2025 from a paragliding crash caused by human error. [Source]
the Guardian
Human error caused crash that killed record-breaking skydiver Felix Baumgartner
The paragliding crash that killed extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner in July was caused by human error, an investigating prosecutor said on Tuesday
TIL that American football resulted in enough fatalities and serious injuries by the early 20th century that it was almost banned. Through the combined efforts of several universities, the sport was reformed and saved and the predecessor of the NCAA was formed. [Source]
TIL magician Harry Houdini and his wife Bess created a secret code phrase (“Rosabelle, believe”) so she could verify any message from him after death. After Houdini died in 1926, Bess held séances for 10 years but concluded no real message came through. [Source]
Encyclopedia Britannica
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini, American magician, possibly the most famous of all time, noted for his sensational escape acts.
TIL there is a rare carnivorous caterpillar in Hawaii nicknamed the “Bone Collector.” It lives inside spider webs and decorates its silk case with the dismembered heads, wings, and legs of its prey to camouflage itself from the "landlord" spider. [Source]
Smithsonian Magazine
Researchers Discover a Rare, Carnivorous Caterpillar That Wears Dead Insect Parts to Fool Spiders
The species, dubbed the "bone collector," belongs to an ancient lineage of moths older than the Hawaiian island of Oahu, which is the only place it's known to live today
TIL about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive treatment where doctors place a magnetic coil against the scalp to send magnetic pulses into the brain, stimulating nerve cells to help treat depression when other treatments haven’t worked [Source]
www.mayoclinic.org
Transcranial magnetic stimulation - Mayo Clinic
This procedure uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain involved in mood control. It's sometimes used for depression and other conditions.
TIL that gachapon machines were invented in the US in the 1880s, originally contained postcards and gum. In Japan, Ryzuo Shigeta received these machines and used toys instead, thus the modern gachapon machines. [Source]
TIL Grave of the Fireflies is based on the author's own experiences as a child and was written as a personal apology for not being able to save his younger sister Keiko. [Source]
Collider
The Heartbreaking Real-Life Story Behind 'Grave of the Fireflies'
Studio Ghibli's WW2 movie draws on harrowing personal experiences.
TIL The United States attempted permanent Daylight Savings Time in 1974. They retracted the law within a year. [Source]
TIL after Haitians won their freedom from France, they were forced to pay their former slave owners compensation for the “loss” of their own bodies. This debt took over a century to pay off, crippled Haiti’s economy and France has yet to pay it back. [Source]
Bbc
French-Haitian panel to study ex-colony's history
The French president announced the commission on the 200th anniversary of France ordering Haiti to pay a debt for its freedom.
Today I learned that in November 2025, a raccoon walking on the ceiling of a liquor store fell into the store when the roof collapsed, went on a drunken rampage, and later passed out on the bathroom floor. [Source]
NBC News
Raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor
An employee at a Ashland-area liquor store found the trash panda passed out on the bathroom floor at the end of his drunken escapade.
TIL that there was an actual debate among ancient Greek writers on whether Achilles or Patroclus was the dominant ("erastes") or the passive ("eromenos") one in the relationship, with Plato famously arguing that Achilles was a passive "eromenos" who was willing to give his life to avenge his lover [Source]
TIL that tone deafness is a real neurological condition called amusia. People with it have difficulty recognizing musical pitch and melodies, even though their hearing and intelligence are normal. It’s estimated to affect about 1.5% of the population. [Source]
PubMed Central (PMC)
Congenital amusia—pathology of musical disorder
Amusia also known as tone deafness affects roughly 1.5% population. Congenital amusia appears from birth and lasts over life span. Usually, it is not associated with other diseases. Its link to hearing impairment has been definitively excluded. ...
TIL that at least four times as many active duty personnel and war veterans of post-9/11 conflicts have died of suicide than in combat. [Source]
Costs of War | Brown University
High Suicide Rates among United States Service Members and Veterans of the Post-9/11 Wars
Suicide rates among active military personnel and veterans of the post-9/11 wars are reaching new peaks. This report uses governmental data, secondary literature, and interviews to document a suicide epidemic that is emerging among post-9/11 fighters as part…