r/todayilearned

About r/todayilearned

In its own words:

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today? Submit interesting and specific facts about something that you just found out here.

The community was created on Dec 28, 2008, which makes it 17 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 10,511 subscribers (+0.03%). Among the 7 communities on our interesting facts list it is the largest. It sits just behind r/gaming (#5) and ahead of r/Music (#7) in our ranking.

Subscriber growth

Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/todayilearned climbed from 41,663,595 to 41,711,023 subscribers (+47.4K, +0.11%). That is about 1,186 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.

Top posts on r/todayilearned this week

What the community upvoted most over the last seven days, as ranked by Reddit (collected Oct 29, 2026).

1. TIL Adam DeVine was hit by a cement truck at age 11, breaking every bone in his legs. He spent two weeks in a coma, underwent 26 surgeries, and used a wheelchair during recovery. Today, he supports C…u/haddock420 · Oct 28 · link
2. TIL Tobey Maguire never told the producers of Spider-Man (2002) about his claustrophobia. He nearly blacked out during a plaster body cast, forcing the costume makers to alert the producers themselve…u/MOinthepast · Oct 23 · link
3. TIL that at military school, Napoleon had a bitter classmate named Phélippeaux whom he constantly traded insults and fistfights with. 15 years later, Phélippeaux masterminded the defense at the Siege…u/Neil118781 · Oct 28 · link
4. TIL Highway hypnosis, also known as white line fever, is an altered mental state in which an automobile driver can drive safely and correctly over long distances without consciously remembering havin…u/AetheriaNox · Oct 27 · link
5. TIL that the "zombie-ant" fungus (Ophiocordyceps) does not control ants by invading their brains. Instead, it leaves the brain completely intact while directly encircling and seizing control of their…u/Fairytlly · Oct 26 · link
6. TIL Salivating before vomiting is a way for your body to protect your teeth from thr incoming stomach acidu/LeviBrown55 · Oct 29 · link
7. TIL the ancestors of the Māori people arrived in New Zealand around 1350 AD, only ~300 years before their contact with Europeans.u/OttawaOsprey · Oct 24 · link
8. TIL the population of the NYC metropolitan area makes up 7.9% of the total US population. The city alone is 2.5% of the country's population.u/named_mark · Oct 26 · link
9. TIL that MIT has the world's largest public collection of science fiction. Anyone can browse the MIT Science Fiction Society's library, and anyone can become a member to borrow books.u/TMWNN · Oct 23 · link
10. TIL whales produce milk as thick as toothpaste so that it doesn't disperse into the water like it would as a liquidu/KindSecretary6383 · Oct 27 · link

All-time top posts

The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/todayilearned, from 2017 to 2022, ranked by Reddit.

1. TIL Genghis Khan would marry off a daughter to the king of an allied nation. Then he would assign his new son in law to military duty in the Mongol wars, while his daughter took over the rule. Most s…Feb 10, 2021 · link
2. TIL that in 1916 there was a proposed Amendment to the US Constitution that would put all acts of war to a national vote, and anyone voting yes would have to register as a volunteer for service in th…u/bpbucko614 · May 10, 2018 · 142,534 points · 5,473 comments · link
3. TIL the FBI has struggled to hire hackers because of the FBI hiring rule that the applicant must not have used marijuana during the last 3 years.u/Miskatonica · May 14, 2020 · link
4. TIL After Col. Shaw died in battle, Confederates buried him in a mass grave as an insult for leading black soldiers. Union troops tried to recover his body, but his father sent a letter saying "We wo…u/Tartantyco · Jan 10, 2018 · 143,494 points · 4,337 comments · link
5. TIL a fan drove three hours to deliver rapper, Boozie Badazz, a much needed dosage of insulin. She refused to accept payment and instead asked for just a photo. On her way home she stopped at a store…u/RarelyAquatic · Aug 13, 2020 · link
6. TIL that the Animal Planet reality series ‘River Monsters’ ended because star Jeremy Wade was able to catch essentially every exceptionally large freshwater fish species on earth, leaving no remainin…u/the_freshest_scone · Mar 23, 2022 · 149,619 points · 3,619 comments · link
7. TIL actor Robert Pattinson dealt with an obsessed fan who had been camping outside his apartment by taking her out on a dinner date. "I just complained about everything in my life and she never came …u/Eric__Fapton · Dec 15, 2019 · 141,150 points · 2,778 comments · link
8. TIL that millennial dads are spending 3 times as much times with their kids than their fathers spent with them. Back in 1982, 43% of fathers admitted they'd never changed a diaper. Today, that number…u/meowroarhiss · Jan 4, 2020 · 140,171 points · 7,096 comments · link
9. TIL The cast of FRIENDS each made $1M per episode in the final two seasons and now make $20M per year per cast member for reruns. The show still generates $1B/year for Warner Bros. All thanks to Davi…u/imsiq · Aug 11, 2020 · link
10. TIL Costco's hot dog has remained $1.50 since it was first introduced in 1984. After the company president complained they were losing money on it, CEO Jim Sinegal put his foot down. "If you raise [t…u/holyfruits · Sep 21, 2020 · link

What r/todayilearned talks about

Looking at the titles of 607 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “til”, “world”, “called”, “million” and “later”. Other frequent themes are american, due, life, named, war and north. Recurring phrases include “united states”, “heart attack”, “world war” and “aircraft carrier”. By format, 96% are links and 4% are videos.

• til 519
• world 27
• called 26
• million 21
• later 20
• american 19
• due 17
• life 17
• named 16
• war 16
• north 16
• state 16
• woman 15
• died 15
• learned 15
• man 14
• instead 14
• english 13

Popular post flairs: Frequent/Recent Repost: Removed (29), (R.6d) Too General (21), Invalid Source (17), Rule 4 (17), (R.1) Not verifiable (12), (R.1) Invalid src (9).

Activity and best time to post

r/todayilearned gets about 99 new posts a day. The public archive holds 2,360,052 posts and 71,981,654 comments in total, about 30.5 comments per post.

Rules of r/todayilearned

The moderators of r/todayilearned list 8 rules. In short:

1. Inaccurate/unverifiable/not supported by source
2. No personal opinions/anecdotes/subjective posts
3. No recent sources
4. No politics/agenda pushing
5. No misleading claims
6. Too general/can't stand on its own/how to
7. No submissions about software/websites
8. All NSFW links must be tagged.

How to join

Open reddit.com/r/todayilearned and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.

Frequently asked questions

Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/todayilearned.