TIL Emperor Commodus once set up a 14 days long extravaganza in the arena, which crowds were reluctant to attend because of a rumour that he was planning to reenact the stymphalian birds myth, in which "the birds" would be represented by the arena crowd and he would shoot arrows towards them [Source]

TIL that actresses Carole Landis and Rachel Roberts committed suicide over the end of their respective romantic relationships with actor Rex Harrison (who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in My Fair Lady) [Source]

TIL: The last United States President that didn’t drop a single bomb on a foreign country was: Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) [Source]

TIL in ‘76 a movie came out about a company that made an advanced AI, collects data on every person, and has to make data centers to store it. Governments then resort to espionage to try and control it, while the company uses it for political influence. That movie is called Deep Throat Part II. [Source]

TIL Ethiopia uses its own calendar, which is about 7–8 years behind the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world. [Source]

TIL that around 2400 BCE, migrants linked to the Bell Beaker culture arrived in Britain and largely replaced the earlier Neolithic farmers. Ancient DNA shows about 90% of the population’s ancestry changed within a few centuries, bringing high levels of steppe DNA to the islands. [Source]

TIL that people who do small acts of kindness for strangers often experience a measurable boost in happiness that can last for several hours. [Source]

TIL that only two women have attempted to assassinate a US President - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Manson family, and Sara Jane Moore, an FBI informant. Both attempts were against Gerald Ford in California within three weeks of each other. [Source]

TIL cleaner wrasse fish willingly enter and clean the mouths of larger, often predatory fish. Larger fish gather at cleaner wrasse "stations" and open their mouths. Cleaner fish enter their mouths and eat parasites; they get a meal, and the larger fish get cleaned of parasites. [Source]

TIL an embryo frozen in 1994 was successfully implanted 30 years later, resulting in a live birth in 2025 — the longest frozen embryo ever to result in a live birth, certified by Guinness World Records. [Source]

TIL that Mark Hamill stated that he would never voice the Joker again because "Without Kevin (Conroy) [the voice actor for the animated version of Batman when Hamill voiced the animated version of the Joker] there, there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me." [Source]

TIL an elderly woman in China unknowingly used an old hand grenade, that never exploded, as a hammer for 20 years. She had risked her life every time she used it. Its metallic head was full of dents and it had become so damaged that part of its fuse was exposed, however somehow it withstood it all. [Source]

TIL about the Detroux Affair in Belgium. Marc Dutroux sold children to prominent figures for abuse, and the botched investigation made people ask whether there was a cover up. Belgian people marched on the streets, and those in power feared a full rebellion. [Source]

TIL that people can often recognize a familiar song in as little as a few hundred milliseconds after it starts playing [Source]

TIL about Rahma Haruna, a girl whose body stopped growing at 6 months old. Her family carried her in a plastic bucket. The specific illness that caused her condition was never diagnosed. She died at age 19. [Source]

Today I learned that basketballs used to always be brown, but in the 1950s an orange basketball was invented so it would be easier to see against the floor of the court. This is now the standard colour for basketballs. [Source]

TIL about Georg Gaertner, a POW who escaped a camp in New Mexico in 1945, lived as a fugitive for 40 years and eventually got citizenship. Because he had been brought to the US involuntarily and escaped the camp after the war, he was not charged with a crime and lived in the US until he died. [Source]

TIL "The Ashes",an England–Australia cricket series since 1883,got its name from a satirical obituary written after England lost to Australia in 1882: "English cricket is dead.The body will be cremated & the ashes taken to Australia".The name stuck when England’s captain vowed to“regain those Ashes" [Source]

TIL the first case of nonischemic priapism (an unwanted persistent erection) following penile tattooing was reported in 2012. A man got a tattoo on his penis which caused a permanent semi-erection. After an unsuccessful surgery to fix it, he decided to live with it since it was painless & functional [Source]

TIL that a Los Angeles woman was once involuntarily committed after she insisted that the boy that she was reunited with was not her missing child. The story later inspired the 2008 movie “Changeling”. [Source]

TIL that in the late 1800s clam chowder was introduced in New Zealand as an "American" dish and has become integral to New Zealand cuisine [Source]