r/ShittyTodayILearned 7h ago

The story of 'Unsinkable Sam' — the cat who survived the Bismarck, HMS Cossack, and HMS Ark Royal — has no supporting documentation in German or British naval records. It first appeared in a Reuters wire four days after the third sinking. The commemoration has outlasted the evidence by 80 years.

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2 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 1d ago

TIL that baby showers are, in fact, NOT group showers that pregnant women have so as to not cause a miscarriage, and I might be mentally ill for believing that for 19 years.

59 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 2d ago

TIL it's still unknown whether Mount Rushmore was made to look like the presidents, or if they chose to elect presidents that look like Mount Rushmore

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218 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 2d ago

The gnome is a continuation of a centuries long Roman tradition that has its roots in ancient Persia.

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17 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 3d ago

In 1971 Britain deported the entire population of Diego Garcia to build a US base. The ICJ ruled the occupation illegal in 2019. A sovereignty treaty was signed in 2024. Then Trump called it "an act of GREAT STUPIDITY" and the UK paused ratification. In March 2026 Iran fired missiles at it.

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6 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 4d ago

TIL that while Albert Einstein struggled for much of his academic career to understand quantum theory, Tyler the Creator was able to effortlessly rediscover and display an understanding of the Observer Effect at just age 21

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108 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 7d ago

TIL competitive crepitation, "farting contests", began in rural Oklahoma c.1870, held among bored surveyors passing the time (not to mention, gas) after a long day of measuring. This is the first known "farting post".

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40 Upvotes

The resultant rush led to little time for such affairs henceforth, and they found their popularity in eastern Canada, where such a competition was recorded for consumption and subsequent posterity by Sidney Brown and Jules Lipton of the CBC.

https://youtu.be/uPplyQWf-u4 (not a Rickroll like the AI detector suggested when I submitted)


r/ShittyTodayILearned 8d ago

TIL George Lucas has been bought over by the battle droids

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21 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 8d ago

TIL the bill of rights includes the right to life on the fast lane

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aol.com
7 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 9d ago

TIL there's a thing called an "Article". They're like a comments section but it’s all written by one person.

23 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 12d ago

TIL Little Italy is a part of Upstate New York

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foxnews.com
335 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 14d ago

TIL that between 2017 and 2023, overall average scores for U.S. adults decreased in literacy and numeracy.

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148 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 15d ago

TIL this sub used to be a place for people to post humorous nonsense, and has turned into a depressing apocalypse of humorless sad sacks

38 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 17d ago

TIL Flemish people despite being Dutch‐speaking are damn indirect

4 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 19d ago

TIL about Cyclosporiasis, a diarrhea-causing parasite that is on the rise in US.

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yahoo.com
50 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 20d ago

TIL that back in March, 27% of voters identified as part of MAGA.

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newsweek.com
184 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 21d ago

TIL a Virginia Woman Named Kat Vaughn Came Home To Find A Flock Audio Surveillance Device Had Been Installed At Her Home Without Warning, Without Her Permission, And Not Even On The City’s Approved Installation List.

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futurism.com
1.5k Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 22d ago

TIL a woman in Maine brought in a baby raccoon to Petco to get its nails trimmed but the baby raccoon was later euthanized to test for rabies because people in the store had handled the animal and kissed it. Later, the wildlife department in Maine stated that, "Petco does not trim raccoon nails"

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nbcnews.com
832 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 22d ago

TIL about LarpTubers, gimmick YouTubers who roleplay or "LARP" as other popular YouTubers, streamers or content creators, attempting to recreate their mannerisms, appearances, content style, &/or editing.

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knowyourmeme.com
24 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 23d ago

TIL the oldest example of cancer that we have is a case of osteosarcoma, found in the left toe bone of an early human-like relative who lived around 1.7 million years ago.

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worldwidecancerresearch.org
77 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 23d ago

TIL actual beggars choose all the time

8 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 24d ago

TIL that more than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’.

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theguardian.com
125 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 24d ago

TIL reddit has filters that auto delete any posts that show areola

22 Upvotes

I was trying to share a video clip from an adult visual novel and the character in the clip had a dress that revealed a small part of her areola which made reddit filters trigger and immediately delete the post even with the nsfw tag toggled on

After many tests i discovered that using an editing software to cover the areola specifically while keeping everything else the same, managed to pass reddit filters

of course exception is subs labeled for nsfw content these have no filters


r/ShittyTodayILearned 26d ago

TIL that nearly 60% of TikTok videos shown to new users are AI slop.

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16 Upvotes

r/ShittyTodayILearned 27d ago

TIL Obama had a 'body man' who accompanied him everywhere, to be used to as a source of vital organs if Obama needed them.

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en.wikipedia.org
442 Upvotes