› added 9 years ago

157

TIL a researcher accidently killed one of the oldest tree ever (nicknamed “Prometheus”) in 1964. He got a tree corer stuck. A park ranger helped him to cut the tree down and remove the tool. Eventually, when he counted the tree rings, he realized that the felled tree was almost 5,000 years old.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

MeB5a TIL Dewey Readmore Books was a cat adopted by a public library in Spencer, Iowa. He was rescued after being abandoned in the library's book drop, and went on to achieve international fame as a library cat. Following his death, his obituary was featured in over 270 newspapers worldwide.
XEkkD TIL Costa Rica is the first country to start a ban on all single-use plastics, scheduled to be complete by 2021
oBkvA TIL in the 1792 Presidential election, George Washington got 100.0% of the vote. Which was only 28,579 votes.
ExR0 TIL before modern weight training, pairs of old church bells were often fashioned together by a rod so they could be lifted. The clappers were removed making the bells silent, or dumb, hence the term ‘dumbbell.’
VMGdZ TIL Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright was trained on trombone and saxophone, as well as being self-taught on guitar, piano and trumpet.